Now...


Later... (125 to 200 years later, that is!)




My husband was is Arizona on business all week and he brought me back a present. He brought me back a piece of Arizona--what a sweetie! He has never quite understood my fascination with/emotional attachment to Saguaros but he loves me so he indulges me in it. The above photo is blurry, so if you can't tell what it is--it's a "Grow Your Own Giant Saguaro Cactus" set. I got a real kick out of this. The reason? Well, since I am so attached to Saguaro cacti, I have researched them extensively and I happen to know that it will be 75 years before my saguaro will grow one arm. Those ones in the drawing on the package, sporting at least 3 arms are probably about 125 years old! By the time they have 5 arms, they are over 200 years old. My set comes with a little tiny terra cotta pot. If I can succeed in getting the little thing to grow, it will take 10 years for it to reach 4-6" in height. That's fine with me, because when it gets too big for the pot, and it is time to plant it outdoors, I will have to take it back to Arizona because it will never survive here in Utah. So at least I will get to keep my little cactus for 10 years before I have to give it up. But this brings me to one of my great pet peeves regarding saguaros. Saguaros grow ONLY in the Sonoran desert--it is the only place on earth with the right climate for them. So the only place you can find Saguaros is in Southern Arizona, a little strip of California by the Arizona border, and down into Northwestern Mexico a little ways. I have seen several different children's books teaching kids about the different states in the United States of America that include drawings of Saguaro cacti on the Texas or New Mexico pages. If you are going to teach kids about the characteristics of the various states, get your facts straight!! There are NO saguaro cacti in Texas or New Mexico or any other western state EXCEPT Arizona and a little strip of California. Why am I so bugged by this? The fact that Saguaro cacti are native only to Arizona is one of the reasons I am so attached to them. When I was little and we would drive to Arizona, we knew when we saw the Saguaro cacti, we were almost there. When we saw those magnificent Saguaro cacti dotting the landscape outside the car windows, we knew that Grandpa and Grandma's house was less than an hour away. And when you have been driving across Texas and New Mexico for two days straight, AND you have such wonderful grandparents, that can be pretty exciting! So that is the root of my passion in regards to Saguaros. Then when you learn more about them, you become even more amazed. How can you not be in awe of a plant that you are looking at right now, when you know it was a little seedling at the time the Declaration of Independence was being signed? Pretty exciting stuff. Well, to me anyway.