GROWING THE GARDENS

Discover The Living Desert’s new, behind-the-scenes propagation greenhouse and garden with Plant Propagator Jose Marfori.

Construction on the propagation garden and greenhouse began in January 2022 and the gardening team is still in the process of completing the nursery. The greenhouse measures 20 feet by 60 feet, and the entire nursery is just under 0.7 acres of space.

What types of plants are you currently propagating?

We propagate different types of plants from different areas, in addition to California native plants. Most plants are predictably from arid areas across the globe, but some are also native to moist, tropical locations and still do well in our hot, dry climate.

Do you propagate food plants here that the animals will eventually eat?

Yes! For short term needs, we typically buy browse trees at larger sizes (24-inch to 48-inch tree boxes) and let them grow out a bit more or plant them in the browse farm. Looking toward the future, I’ve just started several species of acacia in the greenhouse that will eventually be used as browse for the rhinos, though not for a few years.

Can you talk about the propagation cycle within the nursery?

The start of the propagation process is to collect the propagules. These are most commonly seeds we collect from the Zoo grounds or the field, but we also buy seeds of plants we wish to add to our living collection. Additionally, we collect cuttings from plants on grounds.

As plants get bigger and are placed in bigger pots, they move through the nursery. Seedlings and cuttings stay in the greenhouse in flats and 2-inch pots. At 4 inches, they can go outside if it’s fall to spring but stay in during the summer. 1-gallon pots go under the shade structures outside on the tables. They are watered by sprinklers because installing drip irrigation for that many pots is not feasible or efficient. Pots larger than that are arranged in rows out of the shade and hooked up to drip irrigation.

The Living Desert’s Plant Propagator Jose Marfori in the greenhouse. “Each of the three tables in the greenhouse can hold 4,650 individual 2-inch pots,” he shares. “Our goal is to be close to that capacity, especially during prime propagating season such as fall and spring.”

What benefits have you already seen from having the propagation greenhouse and garden?

When the greenhouse was built, we were able to limit our summer losses. This was especially true for many of our tender succulents and certain specimen plants.

What’s next for the nursery?

We just finished installing a third of the shade cloths we need, and now we need to rearrange our tables to go under the shade cloths and start populating the tables with plants! We would also like to start more collaborations with other botanical institutions to exchange plant genetic materials to bolster each other’s conservation efforts.

Confiscated plants, like the ones shown here, can be kept at The Living Desert, and displayed in our living collection if the government decides that the plants aren’t able to return to the wild in terms of poaching, or they aren’t able to return to their country of origin (if cultivated).

Plant Rescue Center

The Living Desert is a designated Plant Rescue Center by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) program called Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ). Whenever the federal government seizes or confiscates plants — either due to suspected poaching, invalid import documentation, or other reasons — we are one of the botanical institutions that can house them while the government investigates.

The Living Desert has also participated in plant rescues in the field. Collaborating with the U.S. Forest Service, California Conservation Corps, CalTrans, and California Botanic Garden, we rescued hundreds of powdery liveforevers. They are a California native succulent that is recently becoming a target for poachers to sell in Asia. The plants needed to be removed from the wild due to planned road expansion.