backgrounder

							Desert Botanical Garden
1201 N. Galvin Parkway
Phoenix, Arizona 85008
Contact: Jia Liu
Phone: 928-221-1941
e-mail: jl633@nau.edu


       Desert Botanical Garden Puts Constant Effort to
 Encourage Appreciation for Wildflowers and the Unique
                              Desert Environment
    It is exceptionally enjoyable driving along Arizona highways at this time of year. Green

buds of spring have filled the sides and added the refreshing color of green to the drive.

What’re more pleasant and eye-catching are those beautiful wildflowers along the highways.

There are Desert Globe Mallow, Fairy Duster, Mexican Gold Poppies, Prickly Poppies and

others. Colors of red, white, light purple, red and so on, have decorated the drives. Yes, the

wildflower season has come.

    Want to know more about the wildflowers in Arizona and how they have made a difference

to the environment? In order to preserve and conserve the nice wildflower environment in

Arizona, Desert Botanical Garden has introduced a new program aiming at educating people

about the importance of wildflowers to the environment. By either visiting Desert Botanical

Garden or joining its wildflower grogram, a lot about wildflowers can be learned.

    Desert Botanical Garden was founded in 1938 by a small group of Valley citizens in

Papago Park. The Garden was founded to encourage an understanding, appreciation and

promotion of the uniqueness of the world’s deserts, particularly the Sonoran Desert. Besides

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that, the Garden wants to advance excellence in education, research, exhibition and exhibition
and conservation of desert plants of the world with emphasis on the southwestern United

States.

    Located at 1201. Galvin Parkway, Phoenix, Desert Botanical Garden is open all year

around except for a couple of holidays. There are exhibitions featuring a variety of wildflowers

of Arizona held by the Garden. It is always a pleasure to see the beautiful flowers as well as

learn about them in the exhibitions. Besides exhibitions, the Garden also has wildflower sales,

which is called Fall and Spring Plant Sales, during the year. At the sales, various types of

wildflowers grown by people who love wildflower will be available.

    In the year of 1938 a small group of Valley citizens gathered in Papago Park to create a

botanical garden. Those people foresaw the Valley’s potential and unique identity, envisioning

the need to conserve their beautiful desert environment. It has been about 70 years later and

Phoenix has expanded greatly. Those people from the Garden are still devoting themselves to

preserve the unique living environment of Arizona.

    The 1980s were a great time of expansion and growth for Desert Botanical Garden. During

this time, the Garden had gained experience and performed in a better way of education. The

Garden had “led a revolution in the way gardens conceptualized their educational mission by

modeling the museum experience and expanding interpretive signage and guided tours.” In

1983, the American Association of Museums accredited the Garden. In 1985, the Desert

Botanical Garden became a charter member of the Center for Plant Conservation, a consortium

of botanical gardens devoted to preserving the rare flora of the

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United States. During the past 20 years, the Garden has come up with its formed volunteer
program, guided tour program, school programs and interpretive signage along each of the

Garden’s five major trails. By 1990, the Garden was widely recognized for leadership and

excellence in education.

    Since 2003, the Garden has participated in a multi-institutional cooperative effort to

provide seed collections to the Millennium Seedbank Project directed by Kew Garden in

England. Approximately 24,000 plants species throughout the world with seeds and herbarium

specimens have been documented. The Desert Botanical Garden, in cooperation with the

Bureau of Land Management and two other Gardens in the U.S., is collecting over 20,000

seeds representing fifty species. And today, with constant efforts Desert Botanical garden has

put, more and more people have recognized the how important it is to preserve desert

wildflowers, and there is a membership of more than 17,000 households, over 1,000 volunteers,

and approximately 300,000 visitors every year.

    What pioneers and volunteers of Desert Botanical Garden has been trying to do is to

influence more and more people to take action to preserve the wildflowers because they are

truly important to the living environment of Arizona. Besides decorating the desert with shinny

colors, wildflowers also play a vital role to the desert environment and eco-systems. A crucial

reason is that they stick to the ground while growing and keep the desert from expanding.

Additionally, about 800 flowering plants in the world are found in Arizona. Those flowering

plants are what the desert animals live on and contribute to maintaining the desert eco-system.

They contribute to conservation of water and provide habitat for birds,

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butterflies, and other native wildlife.
    Aside from the importance to desert environment and eco-system, wildflowers are of

significant meanings to our state of Arizona. Almost 40% of the more than 2,000 flowering

plants in the world are found in Arizona. The upper Sonoran Desert in Arizona is home to as

many as 400 different species of plants. Saguaro, the keystone species in the Sonoran Desert,

was adopted as the official territorial flower in 1901. Its blossom was later confirmed as the

state flower in 1931, and has become one of the most unique state flowers. What’s more, in

1992 when the wildflower series of U.S. stamps was issued, the Desert Five Spot flower was

featured for Arizona.

    The new program recently introduced by Dessert Botanical Garden is called Garden

Wildflower Club. The mission of the program is to increase awareness of preservation and

conservation of wildflowers, and educate people about the importance of doing this. Garden

Wildflower Club is a free email program that sends out emails to its members and gives them

weekly updates on wildflowers. Starting 2009, Garden Wildflower Club will be sending out

informative emails from February to April, when most of wildflowers in the state are in bloom.

With most wildflower information gathered by wildflower enthusiasts statewide and national

wide, Garden Wildflower Club will become a good medium for people who love wildflower to

share and learn more about wildflowers within Arizona.

    A Garden Wildflower Club night party will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 on April 9 th in

the Flower Club downtown Phoenix. With subscription to the email program a ticket to the

party will be awarded. Furthermore, becoming a member of Desert Botanical Garden is a way

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to learn more about wildflowers in the state and national wide. It is also a way to support the
Garden while experiencing a lot of membership benefits. Membership benefits include

discounts on admission tickets to exhibitions, members-only hours, members-only day at Fall

and Spring Plant Sales and so on. Membership fees range from $65 to $100 for one year in

basic levels and from $120 to $190 for two years. More information can be found at the

Garden’s website at http://www.dbg.org/index.php/support/membership. Subscription to

Garden Wildflower Club can be made online at www.gardenwildflowerclub.com.

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