Where succulents go to university: Pitzer College (1 of 2)

Imagine going to college in a place where the sun shines 290 days of the year, where it virtually never freezes, where it’s warm but not unreasonably hot in the summer—and where there are succulents everywhere. Where, in fact, the entire campus is one large succulent garden.

What a nice dream, you might say.

But it’s not a dream, it’s reality. At Pitzer College in the Southern California town of Claremont.

160101_PitzerCollege_0001

Planting bed along the edge of the Sanborn parking lot

Pitzer College, a private liberal arts college with about 1,000 students, is part of the Claremont Colleges, a consortium of five undergraduate and two graduate schools all located on one integrated campus about 35 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. The entire campus is about 1 square mile in size, so all the colleges are within walking distance of each other. Most of them have fairly traditional landscaping—lawn, shrubs and trees—but Pitzer is different. Very different.

160101_PitzerCollege_0010

I could tell right away when I pulled into the staff parking lot you see in these photos. Instead of boring shrubbery, there are succulents. A huge number of succulents of all descriptions. (A word of caution: I would advise against parking in a staff lot without proper ID but I visited in the late afternoon on New Year’s Day, and there was virtually nobody around.)

160101_PitzerCollege_0003

Kalanchoe thyrsifolia (left) and Euphorbia tirucalli ‘Sticks on Fire’ (right)

The one plant I noticed immediately was Euphorbia tirucalli ‘Sticks on Fire’. I would see it in many places on the Pitzer College campus. In the warm afternoon light, it truly was on fire.

160101_PitzerCollege_0011

160101_PitzerCollege_0006

The obvious question is how did the Pitzer campus come to be a large succulent garden?

160101_PitzerCollege_0015

Agave attenuata and camellias

The answer is Joe Clements. The former curator of the Desert Garden at the Huntington in San Marino 25 miles up the road was hired by Pitzer College in 2000 as their grounds and arboretum manager. He immediately began to transform the conventional plantings—similar to what you still find today in the other Claremont Colleges—into a sustainable low-water landscape heavy on succulents as well as Mediterranean and California natives. (This April 2010 article from Pacific Horticulture Magazine has a wealth of background information.)

160101_PitzerCollege_0014

160101_PitzerCollege_0030

160101_PitzerCollege_0028

Today, virtually the entire campus of Pitzer College is part of Rodman Arboretum, named after a political science professor who promoted environmental protection early on. According to a press release from Pitzer College, Joe Clements’ desert garden has been called “the most sophisticated and artfully presented collection of succulents, desert plants, and Mediterranean-climate plants outside of a botanical garden.”

160101_PitzerCollege_0029

Agave attenuata ‘Boutin Blue’

In June 2015, the Cactus and Succulent Society of America (CSSA) held its biennial convention at Pitzer College. I wasn’t able to go, but the resulting coverage of Pitzer’s desert garden in blogs like A Growing Obsession raised my awareness of a place I had only heard mention in passing.

160101_PitzerCollege_0034

According to A Growing Obsession, Joe Clements retired in June 2015, but his influence will last for decades to come.

160101_PitzerCollege_0036

Agave attenuata with the most interesting variegation, going from all green to all yellow

160101_PitzerCollege_0039

Madagascar palm (Pachypodium lamerei)

160101_PitzerCollege_0038

Crown of thorns (Euphorbia milii)

As I was driving from Palm Springs to Claremont on New Year’s Day, I didn’t quite know what to expect because I had a hard time visualizing how everything was laid out. Even though I had read that succulents are everywhere, I still expected a traditional botanical garden. That simply isn’t the case. The whole campus is a garden. Succulents grow in front of administrative buildings, classrooms and dorms—even in parking lots. I don’t think there’s another place like Pitzer anywhere in the world.

160101_PitzerCollege_0041

Dasylirion longissimum

I wandered through the deserted campus in complete awe. What I was seeing weren’t simply dime-a-dozen plants, there were many truly spectacular specimens that would make the heart of any collector beat faster. I hope my photos convey the sense of excitement I felt.

160101_PitzerCollege_0046

160101_PitzerCollege_0049

LEFT: Cow-tongue prickly pear (Opuntia linguiformis)  
RIGHT: Boojum tree (Fouquieria columnaris)

160101_PitzerCollege_0056

160101_PitzerCollege_0059

The densely branched tree on the left is a desert willow (Chilopsis linearis)

160101_PitzerCollege_0050

160101_PitzerCollege_0048

Agave tequilana ‘Sunrise’

160101_PitzerCollege_0051

160101_PitzerCollege_0052

LEFT: Aloe marlothii and Euphorbia tirucalli
MIDDLE: Dracaena draco
RIGHT: Succulents planted in a palm tree stump

160101_PitzerCollege_0060

George C.S. Benson Auditorium

160101_PitzerCollege_0068

Mead Hall

160101_PitzerCollege_0062

160101_PitzerCollege_0063

160101_PitzerCollege_0066

Euphorbia ammak ‘Variegata’, with Euphorbia lambii in the foreground

160101_PitzerCollege_0070

160101_PitzerCollege_0071 

160101_PitzerCollege_0075 

160101_PitzerCollege_0076

Massive ponytail palm (Beaucarnea recurvata) in front of Grove House

160101_PitzerCollege_0080

Agave colorata

160101_PitzerCollege_0083

Massive Cereus hildmannianus

160101_PitzerCollege_0081

160101_PitzerCollege_0088

Agave shawii

160101_PitzerCollege_0089

NOID cholla (Cylindropuntia sp.)

160101_PitzerCollege_0090

Euphorbia ammak ‘Variegata’

I took so many photos at Pitzer College that I can’t fit them all into one post. Check part 2 for a lot more succulent excitement!

RELATED POSTS:

Comments

  1. The planting is just wow! Pays dividends if an institution hires a plantsman to do their grounds :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the great photos of the Pitzer plantings. While you were there, did you happen to visit the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Gardens in the foothills above the Clarement Colleges campus (http://www.rsabg.org/about-home)? I haven't been there in years (since I was a student at Pomona College, where I studied under Lyman Benson), but I remember it as a wonderful collection of plants native to CA and the southwest.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh my!!! Wonderful, simply fabulous. I remember that Pacific Horticulture article and Denise's post. Been wanting to see it for myself ever since. This is almost as good!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Amazing, right? So glad you were able to visit. There should be a law that former botanical directors landscape public spaces, colleges, supermarkets, etc.

    ReplyDelete
  5. It's impressive. I hope my Dasylirion develops a skirt like the one you photographed - mine's getting a sun burn.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment