The Arizona Cactus Garden and the Palo Alto Stock Farm are some of the few remaining pre-university elements now found on the main campus. A plan of the garden shows the Victorian design elements which one may not notice from the ground. Notes on the various plantings found in the plan demonstrate the botanical variety within the space.
Circa 1910, a historic photograph shows the Cactus Garden when it was part of the newly-founded Stanford University. It is important to note the two Columnar Saguaro cacti flanking the central path of the garden. In a similar view taken April 14, 2017 these cacti have been replaced with other varieties.
In 1876, Leland Stanford acquired 650 acres on which the Cactus Garden, and the Palo Alto Stock Farm, still stand. This property is now considered part of the main campus. Between 1881-1883 Leland Stanford hired German landscape designer Rudolph Ulrich to plan the Cactus Garden with the view that the garden would complement his soon-to-be adjacent main house (never built). Inspired by cacti found in Arizona and Mexico, Rudolph designed a formal garden in the Victorian style. Rudolph was known to design at least three cactus gardens within California, one of them found in Golden Gate Park. In 1893, Frederick Law Olmstead (a landscape designer responsible for the layout of the Stanford University campus) invited Ulrich (whom he may have met through the Stanford family) to become the landscape superintendent of Chicago’s Columbian Exposition.
Soon after, in 1884, the Stanford’s only child, Leland Stanford Jr., died. The death resulted in the abandonment of the estate project and the subsequent establishment of Stanford University as a memorial to Leland Jr. Thus, the Cactus Garden was neglected for many years. In 1997 Stanford University began undertaking extensive research and landscape archaeology within the garden.
On the one hand, what makes the Arizona Cactus Garden a designed garden with Victorian elements? Designed gardens mark the shift from the functional kitchen garden of the 18thand early 19thcenturies to the leisure gardens of the late 19thcentury. In Victorian gardens, the plant is viewed as an object of art worthy of observation. In this respect, Victorian gardens (much like gardens today) were laid out in rooms bound by formal borders and containing plant materials of contrasting qualities like light and dark, and color within a sea of green. Paths within these gardens were sinuous and organic, yet symmetrical. The images show remnants of outlying borders and garden benches for gazing.
On the other hand, what makes the Arizona Cactus Garden a 21st-century botanical garden? I maintain that the Cactus Garden really began its life as a botanical garden after the establishment of the university. In botanical gardens plants are grown for display to the public as well as for scientific study. Today, the Arizona Cactus Garden serves both purposes while maintaining its Victorian aesthetic.
Gina Haney
What a wealth of information Gina! I particularly enjoyed learning about the garden's Victorian elements (for the sole purpose of enjoyment) and its 21st century elements, (which include public display as well as scientific study). The garden should be a "must see" for students, faculty & visitors!
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