E EP WITHIN THE ARBORETUM at Stanford University, in
Palo Alto, is the best-kept secret on campus. Sur-
rounded by a classic California landscape—coast
live oaks, imported eucalyptus, and golden grass—
sits an expanse of plants that look lifted from a
Dr. Seuss book. Enormous agaves and yuccas with shaggy thatch
skirts catch your eye from a distance, and once you enter, the
curiosities are hard to keep up with. Densely planted beds over-
flow with otherworldly characters flaunting spines of every color,
and barrels, pads, and rigid rosettes of every proportion.
This surreal scape was one of several so-called “Arizona Gar-
dens” created by landscape architect Rudolph Ulrich in the 1880s,
a time when cacti and succulents were typically grown in small
pots in the greenhouses of the wealthy, and rarely seen cultivated
outdoors. Ulrich’s designs, which he also created at the former
Hotel Del Monte in Monterrey and the Hotel Raymond in Pasa-
dena, among other locations, blended a formal style (quadrilateral
beds and symmetrical plantings) with never-before-seen arid
D
beauties. In Palo Alto, which was then an 8,000-acre private
estate, his patrons were Jane and Leland Stanford, garden en-
thusiasts who spared no expense: Leland collected trees from
around the world, and Jane insisted on growing a panoply of
flowers year-round.
Stanford’s day job was president of the Central Pacific Rail-
road, which came in handy, since the only way to source desert
plants back then was by train. He granted Ulrich unlimited
access to boxcars and labor for grueling trips to the Sonoran
Desert. In a practice that would land him in hot water today,
Ulrich and crew dug up the most stunning specimens, includ-
ing barrel cacti, opuntia, and yucca, and shuttled them back
to the coast. After the Stanfords’ only son died unexpectedly
of typhoid, they transformed their estate into the university
in his memory in 1891.
The Great Depression hit the area hard, and while the school
bounced back, the garden languished for decades until the
administration decided to renovate the part of campus where
Left: A rare double-trunked Yucca filifera that dates
to the garden’s creation looms large; beneath it lies
a bed of Euphorbia rigida with lime-colored flowers.
Above: An Agave parryii displays its captivating rosette
form and sharp black spines.
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