Mechanical butterflies, model trains and–oh yes–lots of cacti

The Tucson Botanical Garden has been selected as one of the best “secret gardens” or small gardens in the United States more than once. In my opinion, however, it is one of the most eccentric botanical gardens in the country. It seems as much art museum as botanical garden.

When you visit TBG you can always count on seeing art installations and sculptures standing tall among the creosote bushes and saguaros plus paintings by local artists in the old buildings on the site plus–now–cacti and more cacti. Perhaps this unconventional approach to the garden has much to do with the size: it is very small. And, small gardens must have a special focus or some type of unique feature in order to survive.

So here are the unique features currently at TBG. (Some have been there for a while but were new to me. I had not visited it in a year.)

For visiting children

The Children’s Discovery Garden provided a few things for children to do while parents watched quietly from nearby seating in the shade. That gray block-looking thing under the umbrella is actually a musical instrument. One plays it by dropping small stones into the top and they create “music” as the stones fall down plucking metal wires strung across the interior. Clever!

The butterfly house has been a main attraction for years and the people in the left photo are lined up waiting for entrance. The big metal object the kids are looking through is actually a kaleidoscope. Pretty nifty! And, on the right is one of two mechanical butterflies stashed in the opposite corner of the garden like huge sculptures. Visitors can pedal and make the wings flap. The TBG has also been a friend to bees over the years. You can see details in this post.

Inspired by ancient indigenous art in Mexico

The moment I turned the corner and saw this puppy sculpture I recognized it as modeled after the adorable puppies created by people who lived in Colima thousands of years ago. They were exhibited at the Tucson Museum of Art in 2021. Dogs were regarded as guides leading the souls to the underworld and every family wanted one. Then inside the Mexican Garden came the sculpture of the parrot, which you can see at the top of this post. Nearby were a hummingbird and a deer, two other spirit creatures from pre-Hispanic Mexico. And even further on was a monkey spirit sculpture. I contrast, on the right: St. Francis, an example of the art the Spanish brought with them to Mexico.

Now, before I get to the show-stopper, I will show you photos of the newly expanded cactus and succulent garden. Confession: I’m not much of a cactus person, but do like succulents.

Now for the finale! A model train installation now winds through one of the more-ignored parts of TBG. There are four or five separate trains tootling around tracks in this permanent installation at the garden. There is even a modern Amtrak train rolling along overhead. As you can see these historic model trains are accompanied by models of historic buildings in the Southwest: San Xavier Mission, Taos Pueblo and Tumacacori Mission church among them. Everything you see in this post will be there for a while and I think I may go back again to spend more time looking at this model train installation.

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I have news!

Now for some news! I just published an illustrated children’s chapter book entitled “Javelina Cousins and the Magic Compass”. It tells of the adventures of 4 young javelinas as they search for lost treasure in the Chuk-son desert forest. The book for young readers even has a javelina dancing in a blue tutu! I’ll be doing a separate post about it, but until then here is a link to the paperback and Kindle editions.

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