Headed To Arizona - Any Ideas

[ghues]

Hi Fellow nut'ers,
Headed to Arizona for a short R&R break in March, does anyone have any ideas for me to get my Bonsai fix...I wont be able to buy anything but visiting nurseries and/or areas for inspiration is what I was thinking about.
Cheers G.

 

[milehigh_7]

Where in AZ?

 

[jk_lewis]

I don't know of any public exhibits of bonsai in AZ or any bonsai nurseries, but the Phoenix Bonsai Society is very active -- http://www.phoenixbonsai.com/ -- so you probably can set up some visits (or even attend a meeting if the timing and location are right).

There IS a public arboretum in Phoenix (between Phoenix and Tempe, if I recall rightly. If you go to Tucson, you must visit the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum; they both will have lots of desert plants (and in the case of the Museum, animals) on display. In Southern Arizona the Suguaro National Monument near Tucson is also a good visit -- as is Organ pipe (cactus) National Monument farther south on the boarder.

Arizona is a great place to visit (and live!). Enjoy.

 

[ghues]

Thanks JKl,
I'll try to contact them to see if I can set somethng up.
Coming from the rainy Pacific Northwest the warmth of Arizona will be a real treat.
We are heading to Buckeye which I believe is about 45minutes west of Phoenix.
Cheers G.

 

[rockm]

If you're up near Phoenix, take the drive out to Tortilla Flats on the Apache Trail, or go by the Superstition Mountains and the Tonto National Forest. Not much in the way of bonsai, but it's spectacular.

 

[jk_lewis]

Buckeye is the westernmost suburb of Phoenix. A good center of operations for travel around AZ.

Also see the red rock country around Sedona -- and of course, the Grand Canyon. Lots of "bonsai" there -- but all are well out of reach.

 

[Smoke]

...oh....and take a bullet proof vest

 

[milehigh_7]

JKL, Yea lovely place to live if you like 122F and 4% humidity...

Smoke yea you are right about the gun, especially if he goes to Organ Pipe. Actually portions of the mountains down there are occupied and controlled by Mexican militants.

There are not many nurseries at all there but around the metro area you will see some amazing olives and bougainvillea that you would just die for. If you head North, the rim area like: Prescott, Payson and Sedona are very nice with loads of trees to see.

 

[jk_lewis]

JKL, Yea lovely place to live if you like 122F and 4% humidity...

I lived in North Florida for 40 years, and I tell you that 122 degrees F and 4 % humidity is a heckuva lot better than 98 degrees F and 80% humidity.

I lived in AZ (in Nogales) for several years. Went to Arizona State College (now University) in Tempe, and then stayed off and on in Prescott, where my mother lived, for a while. I loved every moment of it. Even the summers. But the foothills of North Carolina's Blue Ridge where I live now is nice, too -- when it's not snowing!

 

[milehigh_7]

I lived in North Florida for 40 years, and I tell you that 122 degrees F and 4 % humidity is a heckuva lot better than 98 degrees F and 80% humidity.

I lived in AZ (in Nogales) for several years. Went to Arizona State College (now University) in Tempe, and then stayed off and on in Prescott, where my mother lived, for a while. I loved every moment of it. Even the summers. But the foothills of North Carolina's Blue Ridge where I live now is nice, too -- when it's not snowing!

I lived in Phoenix for 8 years and hated every second. I had to move there from the mountains of Colorado. Let's face it, everything is down stream from Colorado. I also built a house in Avondale which is about two miles from Buckeye. I got to keep that house for six months until myself and 20,000 of my engineering peers lost our jobs in Phoenix.

The exciting weather comes just after the worst of the heat. The day after the 122F 4% day, monsoon hit and then we had lovely 100+ and 75-80% humidity. Nothing like monsoon in Phoenix. Those walls of dirt are amazing.

Not to mention the wind sheers that are very much like a daisy cutter. We had one that snapped an entire mile of telephone poles.


The hills they call mountains really depressed me. Especially when you look up and see cacti not trees...

 

[jk_lewis]

The answer to that, of course, is to NOT live in Phoenix.

 

[rockm]

I lived in Scottsdale back in the late 1960's just outside of Phoenix. It was great. Loved every minute of it. Phoenix was a very small place back then. The mayor of Scottsdale was my dentist and they closed school when the rodeo came to town. Used to jump in the huge collection wagons in the cotton fields with my friends after school, then go hunt scorpions...

Yeah, it's hot and dry, but as Sam Kinnison said---IT'S A DESERT, HELLOOOO, IT'S A FREAKIN DESERT....move if you don't like it Deserts are not very nice places, especially if the AC is broke.

 

[ghues]

Thanks everyone, I'm sure we will have a great time, take in the sites, catch a hockey game, play some golf, read a book or two around a pool.......forget about work and the weather back home........as I'm sure we've all have had some bad experiences with weather..... SO.....I'm just going to go with an open mind and take it all in.
Al I won't bite on your bullet proof vest - being Canadian an' all.

Any of you been to Coastal British Columbia in November ...when the south-easter's hit.. with 80-100km winds and inches of rain coming sideways...all delivered in 24 hours...........how about trekking through the west coast hyper-maritime coastal forests where the vegetation is so thick you spend a lot of the day crawling on your hands and knees and you don't take off your rain gear until you get back to the truck..............I think I can handle some March heat in Arizona.

As I look out the window across the bay, the waters grey, the coastal fringe of trees are covered in a grey mist which extends skywards into a solid blanket of grey sky........but at least ya don't have to shovel it.
Cheers G