| Home Page * Contact Us * About Us * Book Your Wedding * Gift Shop & Nursery * Gallery * Visitor Info * Newsletter * FAQ * Sitemap * Special Events * Tech Support * Employment * Directions MOORTEN BOTANICAL GARDENS * 1701 South Palm Canyon Drive * Palm Springs * California * 92264 * (760) 327- 6555 * Email: clarkmoorten@yahoo.com |
Located at the southern end of Palm Canyon Drive, the Moorten Botanical Gardens and Cactarium is a favorite Palm Springs attraction
and the enduring legacy of Patricia and Chester "Cactus Slim" Moorten. Both shared a love of the Desert and its beauty, plants and
wildlife. Nicknamed Slim for his tall lanky form and work as a contortionist, Moorten was one of the original Keystone Cops and became
the stand-in for Howard Hughes. Poor health led him to Palm Springs in the 1930s with his young wife Patricia, a biologist with a special
interest in botany. Together they explored the surrounding area collecting desert plants and in 1938 created an arboretum.
The Moorten Botanical Gardens now boasts 3,000 examples of desert cacti and other desert plants grouped by geographic regions:
Arizona, Baja California, California, Colorado, the Mojave desert, the Sonora desert, South Africa, arid South America, and Texas. Outdoor
collections include agaves, bombax, crested Cereus, cardon and boojum trees, arborescent "candelabra" Euphorbia, a two-story
Pachypodium, thorned Caesalpinia and Bursera, and aloes of southern Africa and Madagascar. In the "Cactarium" greenhouse are cacti
and succulents, with caudiciform species exhibiting thickened root crowns, many species of Asclepiads, Aztecia, Gymnocalyciums,
Alstromeria, Euphorbia, and Ferocactus, plus two Welwitzia mirabilis from Namibian deserts.
Slim and Patricia Moorten designed and installed landscapes for Frank Sinatra and were friends of Walt Disney at his Palm Springs
Smoke Tree Ranch. They consulted Disney to help design the western theme of Frontierland at his new amusement park which later
became Disneyland. The Moortens were also well traveled and took their only son Clark for trips down
Baja California and into Mexico collecting plants as far south as Guatemala.
Today, Clark Moorten ( right) is the curator of the Moorten Botanical Gardens and widely acknowledged
as an expert on succulent plants in America. Clark tends the garden and propagates many of its plants
for sale and is there to greet visitors almost every day.
Note: Moorten Botanical Gardens may be rented for weddings and parties.
Please call or e-mail us for price quote and information!
and the enduring legacy of Patricia and Chester "Cactus Slim" Moorten. Both shared a love of the Desert and its beauty, plants and
wildlife. Nicknamed Slim for his tall lanky form and work as a contortionist, Moorten was one of the original Keystone Cops and became
the stand-in for Howard Hughes. Poor health led him to Palm Springs in the 1930s with his young wife Patricia, a biologist with a special
interest in botany. Together they explored the surrounding area collecting desert plants and in 1938 created an arboretum.
The Moorten Botanical Gardens now boasts 3,000 examples of desert cacti and other desert plants grouped by geographic regions:
Arizona, Baja California, California, Colorado, the Mojave desert, the Sonora desert, South Africa, arid South America, and Texas. Outdoor
collections include agaves, bombax, crested Cereus, cardon and boojum trees, arborescent "candelabra" Euphorbia, a two-story
Pachypodium, thorned Caesalpinia and Bursera, and aloes of southern Africa and Madagascar. In the "Cactarium" greenhouse are cacti
and succulents, with caudiciform species exhibiting thickened root crowns, many species of Asclepiads, Aztecia, Gymnocalyciums,
Alstromeria, Euphorbia, and Ferocactus, plus two Welwitzia mirabilis from Namibian deserts.
Slim and Patricia Moorten designed and installed landscapes for Frank Sinatra and were friends of Walt Disney at his Palm Springs
Smoke Tree Ranch. They consulted Disney to help design the western theme of Frontierland at his new amusement park which later
became Disneyland. The Moortens were also well traveled and took their only son Clark for trips down
Baja California and into Mexico collecting plants as far south as Guatemala.
Today, Clark Moorten ( right) is the curator of the Moorten Botanical Gardens and widely acknowledged
as an expert on succulent plants in America. Clark tends the garden and propagates many of its plants
for sale and is there to greet visitors almost every day.
Note: Moorten Botanical Gardens may be rented for weddings and parties.
Please call or e-mail us for price quote and information!
