Moorten Botanical Gardens- Palm Springs

 
Inside the Moorten Botanical Gardens. Photo by Myriam Mahiques, personal archives, 2023

I've been in Palm Springs, California, many times, most of all for business, and this weekend I decided to finally visit the Moorten Botanical Gardens, which at first I thought they would be like a big regional Arboretum, but no, the gardens are a private collection of cactus and succulents.

From the Gardens web page: 

"Moorten Botanical Garden possesses an equally colorful history. It was created by Clark’s parents, Chester “Cactus Slim” Moorten and his wife, Patricia. Cactus Slim was an original Keystone Cop and a stand-in for Howard Hughes. He developed tuberculosis on a film set and recovered in Cottonwood Springs, near Joshua Tree, where he panned for gold and collected beautiful cactuses. He learned mining was hard work and selling prickly plants paid better. In search of more customers, Chester came to Palm Springs in 1938, met Patricia, who also had an interest in succulents, and they bought the property, which became Moorten Botanical Garden, from renowned nature and desert photographer Stephen Willard."

The story goes on that they developed a business designing gardens for famous CA people, but you can tell that these gardens in Palm Springs are not the work of landscape architects, but of "aficionados" who love succulents and cactus. 

It may take half an hour to walk around the trails, unless you take your time taking pictures and reading the labels. Not all plans are labeled and overall, I found the gardens beautiful.

Inside the Green House of the Moorten Botanical Gardens

But it dawned on me the precariousness of the site, which I was not expecting. The Green House is build with plastic sheets, the air conditioning looked very old and (maybe) out of work. There are lots of plastic cactus pots inside, those who love plants know very well how bad plastic is to ventilate the roots. This is not the arrangement based on pattern, species or design, I had the feeling of seeing plants just added here and there. The "walkway" is pretty narrow, at the point that I came across a lady who trying to dodge me, was accidentally pricked by one of the cactuses.

The Green House had one of the two entrances blocked, which is not a good idea in case of eventual fire or earthquake. 

The following pictures belong to my personal archives, they have been taken yesterday, January 7th 2023, please do not share without my permission.

The scale of the cactus is really amazing and I truly enjoyed the trails.

The ticket is $5 per adult. There is a sort of "shop" at the entrance and I bought two gifts, one for my daughter, the other for myself.

I think this outdoor armchair carved from a trunk is a real (most interesting) finding.

The Moorten Gardens point of sale.

As a side note, the web page states that some days they have 200 visitors. Besides, it is advertising weddings, and events, charging more than 1,000$. The site was not crowded but I can tell there is elder people most of all. 

After this visit, I had to go to a construction job site and then go back home. I thought it would be a good idea to go to the restroom before leaving. And here it was my main surprise, the bathroom is NOT accessible and I believe it does not have a Building and Safety permit at all. Being it so precarious, just like a siding box with no structural framing for the roof, no structural connections to the stucco walls behind, no accessible path (the path leading to it is very steep), my disgust was such, that I decided not to enter. A chemical bathroom at the construction site would be better.

I do not know if there is another bathroom facility but I had no indication otherwise. See that even the sink, the paper, the stuff around, all of it looks precarious and like abandoned. If this business is advertised for weddings, etc, for 200 people, there is no way this "white sort of storage" in my picture below, will suffice for the public and never for the purposes of safety, which is one of my main concerns. 

I hope this will be fixed in time, as it is a black stain in the gardens beauty. 

The bathroom of the Moorten Botanical Gardens is the white precarious construction in the middle. Supposedly "attached" to the house.

Architecture, gardens and pool at the MOLAA Museum of Latin American Art

 
The front cactus and succulents garden, the path surrounding the building and pool. I have to say, as a thought for hardscape design, though the perspective looks great, nobody dares to sit down under the Summer sun and the path is empty. I've seen it crowded only once, with people waiting in a queue, for Frida Kahlo's photos exhibition years ago. 

After a couple of years, I have come back to the MOLAA, Museum of Latin American Art of Long Beach, California. I am sharing some of my pictures as an example of architecture in combination with landscape. The building was designed by Mexican architect Manuel Rosen and I can appreciate the influence of architect Ricardo Legorreta whose designs are inspired in time by Pritzker winner architect Luis Barragan. The three Mexican architects' designs display the sensibility for color, high walls in combination with water, reflections, the sense of peace, the arid landscape, and the view of the blue sky at least as much as it can be achieved.

The front garden

It is important to walk around and discover the visuals with the pool reflections, the geometry, the game of light and shadows and, as an interesting detail, a round mirror that reflects the street activity and Palm trees.

The Palm trees are strategically located to produce perspectives or focal points, depending on where we are standing.

The cascade, a beautiful fixture that is never absent in Barragan's architecture. The difference here is that we need to make an effort to isolate ourselves from the transit noise coming from behind.

As I mentioned before, this Palm tree is to be seen at the end of the perspective between two walls.

A side view of the pool. On the left, a metal sculpture.

The garden inside the MOLAA has this amazing cactus, I like to see it from different angles.

The bollards and screens with matching colors. The use of stone matches the front garden.

A vertical picture to show the fantastic cactus combined with Palm trees. The parking lot is surrounded by Bougainvilleas.

Entering the garden inside, the building is surrounded by palms and cactus in rustic ceramic pots.

My favorite sculpture in the museum. See how the entrance to the garden is designed with a trellis.

I've felt a little disappointed this time, this is not the way I remember the garden inside the building. I have in mind the slab on grade was not extended everywhere, it does not look friendly. I believe there was lawn and I can understand if it has been removed. The open plaza is for chairs, to watch performances on the elevated stage. I have been on the stage when one of my art works  about Frida Kahlo, was selected among others. I can tell the lack of shadow in the patio is pretty critical, mostly in Summer. 

You can see here, this person is sitting in the shadow and such a plaza is empty. There was a lot of people inside.

The garden used to be wilder for sure, with more species.

Another empty view of the garden on a free Sunday afternoon, while there was a lot of people inside the building. We must not forget about the uses of the spaces during extreme weather.

All pictures belong to Myriam Mahiques, from my personal archives, September 2022. Do not share without my permission.

Hard geometry and fractality in landscape design

My landscape design of two layers of hard geometry in a fractal landscape, full of Palm trees. On the far left, vernacular excavated architecture or a rocky terrain.

I see it as an aerial picture of grand extents, but it can also be applied to smaller scales, this way the Palm trees will be just plants.

The second detail is proposing the water flooding the islands. 

In between the composition, a narrow strip of landscape. A tall divider, a screen or a passing vessel.  When the tide changes, -or the water level for a man-made landscape-, the underwater plants emerge or submerge. This landscape is dynamic, continuously modifying itself.

 

Front yards and sidewalks of Southern CA: goodbye to lawns!

 

Long Beach sidewalk, CA. Photo by Myriam Mahiques, personal archives.

There is an interesting post on The Guardian today, "The American lawn feels irresponsible": the LA homes ditching grass for drought-friendly gardens  that explains how many homeowners have decided to remove the lawn of their front yards and replace it with water wise gardens, in other words, draught tolerant gardens with succulents and cactus among other desert species. 

This is not new. There is a rebate program that has been going on for some years:

"The Los Angeles County Waterworks Districts offer customers a rebate for removing water-inefficient grass with drought-tolerant landscaping. The current rate is $1, with a minimum requirement of 500 sq. ft. and maximum of $5,000. The Rebate Program assists customers with reducing their overall water consumption." The paragraph is from the Los Angeles Waterworks Districts, the link to apply can be found here:

https://dpw.lacounty.gov/wwd/web/Conservation/CashforGrass.aspx#:~:text=The%20Los%20Angeles%20County%20Waterworks,and%20maximum%20of%20%245%2C000.

Succulents and wild grass front yard garden and a beautiful pepper tree which branches extend across the sidewalk. Photo by Myriam Mahiques, personal archives.

More information will be found on my previous post about Long Beach front yards.

I've been walking around the neighborhood again and enjoying the front yards that extend to the right of way landscape, in a wild but careful manner, most of the time in combination with the beautiful palm trees and old pepper trees. 

Long Beach is one of the most pedestrian friendly cities I've known in Southern CA, they have some rules based on research of other cities, like Chicago. There is  publication about "walkable Long Beach" containing an explanation of why trees are important, not only for our physical wellness but our psychology and behavior as well. 

https://www.longbeach.gov/globalassets/lbds/media-library/documents/orphans/cx3/chapter-7-make-long-beach-walkable

I am sharing here some of my pictures of September 2022 to complete the examples shown on The Guardian article and with the intention of bringing up the homeowner's interest on water wise gardens. 

A beautiful historical house on Termino ave. See how the succulents are arranged to create a border of the front yard.

A nice surprise to see a book exchange box in a front yard.

Wild but neat, the succulents are trimmed to keep the sidewalk width. In general, the trees are left to create canopies across, which I find very appealing. 

Cactus, succulents, palm trees, wild grasses....

Crossing Termino Ave towards the beach. 

Colorful ceramic pots are part of the landscape decoration.

The pepper tree across the sidewalk.

This picture has been taken with the owner's permission. We had a brief conversation about this landscape, he says that it is consuming too much water, even when they are wild grasses with a front yard Strelitzia (Regal Bird of Paradise or Parrot flower). He added that by January it will be all gone. I'll be back to see what he is proposing.

A different view of the previous photo, from the neighbor's house. Here we see a trellis with climbers, there's Rosemary in the middle of both lots. The Bird of Paradise is in full bloom.

Ivy covering the sloped front yard. 

A close view of the previous ivy, next planter is full of Rosemary, which strives very well in the southern CA dry weather. The right of way has willow trees, their branches in canopies.

Palm trees, cactus, succulents. A climber Gardenia and a Bougainvillea at the side entrance.

The following pictures of the Long Beach Green Belt are part of the draught tolerant urban landscape of Long Beach, California. The trail leads to the Colorado Lagoon, which is part of the wetlands.

This type of urban and landscape design is so important for people to learn how to take care of our environment. 

A beautiful Bougainvillea in combination with draught tolerant plans. This is a corner front yard as seen from the LB Greenbelt.

Art is also present in the trail. All pictures from my personal archives, September 2022.

One of my favorite front yards in the neighborhood. A mix of wild grasses with succulents, cactus and poppies. Personal archives, April 2024.

Wild flowers and cactus on the right of way landscape. Long Beach. Personal archives, April 2024.

Poppies, wild flowers, lavender, wild grasses on the front yard and right of way. Long Beach. Personal archives, April 2024.