Page 177 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL SUMMER 2024 LIMA
P. 177
that the garden is over 100 years old, hav‐ hundreds of agave, aloe, bromeliads, bot‐
ing started in 1907 on a small fault scarp. tle palms and yucca. The aloe collection
Today the 10-acre garden features more contains some 200 of the world’s 300
than 2,000 succulents and cacti in 60 species and is one of the largest collec‐
landscaped beds. tions of its kind outside Africa.
Many of the golden barrel cacti, The Huntington Botanical Gardens are
which are arranged in groups that make reason enough to visit the Los Angeles
for beautiful displays, were planted from area. But when you add all the other
seed in 1915 and now can each weigh sev‐ amazing gardens I saw, there is simply no
eral hundred pounds. place on the planet that holds such boun‐
Some Yucca specimens reach more tiful displays of unique and gorgeous
than 60 feet high. A Cereus xanthocarpus, landscapes available to the public.
a tree-like cactus, is the largest on the Even my fellow San Diegan had to
grounds: It weighs 20 tons and was mature admit when I told her what I was going to
when it was planted in 1905. There are see in L.A.: “Well, that does sound amazing.”
The Desert Garden at Huntington Gardens.
WINEDINEANDTRAVEL.COM 177
