Roadside Attraction: Moorten Botanical Garden
Want to experience one of the last, unchanged remnants of old Palm Springs? Look no further than Moorten Botanic Garden, a quirky private collection of over 3000 different types of cactus, succulents, and desert plants spread across a one-acre property just minutes from Descanso. Tended to by the same family for nearly seventy years, Moorten’s is an endearing place to spend an hour or so. Stroll the winding garden trails through mature plantings, soak up some boho vibes inside the world’s first “Cactarium,” and marvel at all the crazy types of cactus that exist in the world. You’ll soon see why Moorten’s remains one of Palm Springs’ most popular (and most Instagrammed) attractions.
Touring the Garden
Plan on allowing an hour to walk the nature trail and experience the entire garden. The easy, winding path travels past mesquite trees and countless varieties of cacti and other desert plants, many identified by charming hand-lettered signs. Plants are grouped by geographical habitats representing nearly a dozen arid biomes, from the Baja Peninsula of North America to the Succulent Karoo of South Africa. Given that Chester Moorten began collecting cacti in the 1930s, many of the specimens are quite old and impressively large. Some measure up to 20 feet tall.
The Cactarium is undoubtedly the most photographed location in the garden. Stepping inside the dome-like greenhouse structure is a visual and sensory treat. Everywhere you look, there’s a different type of unusual cactus. Miniature, upright, horizontal, upside down, spiky, hairy, spineless… you don’t have to be a plant nerd to appreciate all of the unique ways these tough plants have evolved to survive and thrive in difficult places.
The garden also includes the Moorten family’s original Mediterranean-style home (the “Cactus Castle”), a seasonal tortoise exhibit, year-round hummingbird watching, a collection of rocks and gold-mining relics, and a small nursery where you can purchase plants and pottery for your home garden.
A Family Affair
On most days you’ll find second-generation owner Clark Moorten welcoming guests to the gardens, collecting a small admission fee, and sharing stories. This charming octogenarian has spent his entire life building and preserving the gardens, first alongside his parents and now with the help of h is son and grandchild.
According to Clark, the garden’s colorful story began in the late 1930s. His father Chester Moorten was an original Keystone Cop and a Hollywood stand-in for Howard Hughes—until he contracted tuberculosis on a film set. Relocating to the desert to recover, Chester stayed busy by panning for gold and collecting native cactuses. Once he discovered that he could make more money selling the plants than panning for gold, he started a fledgling nursery business. As fate would have it, he soon met and married a woman who shared his passion for prickly plants and gardening.
Chester and his wife Patricia purchased the current garden’s one-acre location on Palm Canyon Drive in the 1950s. The hard work of moving boulders, constructing paths, and creating a large-scale garden began immediately, with Patricia coining the term “Cactarium” for the Quonset-style greenhouse they built to propagate specimens. As the nursery business continued to grow, local luminaries like Frank Sinatra and Walt Disney began stopping by to see the plants installed in Moorten’s dramatic garden. This led to the couple expanding into garden and landscape design, creating desert backyard retreats for many prominent residents of Palm Springs. If you’re fortunate enough to run into Clark Moorten during your garden visit, make sure to ask him about how his parents helped Walt Disney with foliage design and plant material for a little resort he was building in Anaheim.
Directions + When to Visit
Moorten Botanical Garden is an easy 10-minute drive from Descanso Resort. The gardens are open everyday except Wednesday from 10am-4pm from October through end of May. Reduced summer hours are 9am-1pm, Friday-Saturday-Sunday only.