While the Tucson Botanical Garden recently won an award as one of the best botanical gardens in the nation, it is in most ways a traditional botanical garden with drought tolerant plants nicely placed in semi-residential settings on 5.5 acres in MidTown. It’s pretty but quite artificial, as many botanic gardens are.
The lesser-known, and ten times larger, Tohono Chul garden in Oro Valley, however, is a permanent preserve of native plants with extensive trails winding through 50 acres of Sonoran desert landscape. On most of the property the plants simply grow wild wherever they thrive naturally.
Tohono Chul (which means “desert corner”) is multi-faceted. In addition to the gardens, it has a bistro for dining in a historic old home. The entry to the bistro is shown at the top of this post. It also has an art gallery exhibiting what originally was the private collection of native American artworks owned by founder Richard Wilson’s mother plus changing exhibitions of contemporary art work. Sculptures are sited around the developed part of the gardens.
There are also areas dedicated to residential demonstration gardens. I especially wanted to see them, but they were closed on Saturday when I went to the Tohono Chul Community Day with free entry. (More about free entry later.)
Tohono Chul is a friend to the community
Tohono Chul struck me as being much more community-oriented than TBG. And not just on their Community Day. TBG seems to target their educational and art exhibits toward adults. At Tohono Chul families and children seem to be the focus.
So…here is what I saw on Saturday. Lots of children, for starters. On the left is the insect table and a girl fascinated by the caterpillar in her hand. In the middle, snakes! Some people like ’em, some don’t. The little girl seems to be of the “like ’em” group and was petting a snakeskin. And on the right, two children and their mother “drum” on the metal petals of flowers. They sounded like a steel drum band from the Caribbean!
Of course there were plants and more plants to inspire you. On the left is table-top display of cacti and succulents in a shady ramada. In the center a Mexican Mound cactus and, on the right, is the ubiquitous Desert Willow, Chilopsis linearis, which begins blooming with purple and pink flowers around the time that the brilliant yellow Palo Verde blossoms fade.
Trees line walkways and also grow naturally wild
As I mentioned there are large parts of Tohono Chul that are left alone as a preserve for Sonoran plants to grow naturally. Unpaved paths wind through these areas. There is also a smaller part of the garden that has winding paved paths that are easy for people of all ages and abilities to traverse.
After you’ve wandered around, stop by the gift shop or the art gallery. I intend to on my next visit to Tohono Chul which will likely be during their “Chillin’ at the Chul” Friday and Saturday evenings with free admission between May 26 and September 2nd, 2023. One of the items I want to check out is what appears to be a blue painted agave outside the door to the gift shop. I’m pretty sure it’s ceramic, but I’d like a closer look at it and also at the residential demonstration gardens that were closed during this visit.
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