Meeting Location: DBG – Dorrance Hall
Meeting Time: 2:00 p.m.

The monthly meetings will include:

  • Announcements of upcoming meetings and events
  • Club news
  • Silent Plant Auction
  • Monthly presentation

Members frequently bring in cuttings to share on the free plant table.

We meet at 2:00 pm the last Sunday of most months at the Desert Botanical Garden, 1201 North Galvin Parkway, Phoenix, Arizona. The general meeting begins at 2 pm but you can come early to socialize and peruse the Silent Auction plants. Here is a map of the Garden.

Our Board meets monthly to discuss CACSS business; all members are welcome to attend Board meetings.

Presenters: Cathy Babcock, Al Dunstan, Judy Mielke, and Rod Stanger

Cathy Babcock has 30 years of desert plant experience. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Urban Horticulture from Arizona State University. From there she hired on as Horticulturist at Desert Botanical Garden, serving as Director of Horticulture the last 7 years of her 22 years there. She has spent the last 6 years as Director of Horticulture at Boyce Thompson Arboretum, the last 2 of which she has been overseeing the move of the plants from the Wallace Desert Garden to BTA.

Al Dunstan, after 15 years in public and private accounting, turned a hobby into a business when he co-founded Desierto Verde, Inc. with friend Phil Hebets in 1982. DV originated a process for salvaging native desert trees that became an industry standard and led to native plant ordinances in many Arizona cities, including Scottsdale and Phoenix. Following the sale of the Company in 2005, Al started a design-build landscape firm in Ajo, Arizona and introduced a wide variety of desert plants to the former mining town. As Project Manager for the Wallace Gardens Foundation, Dunstan commuted from Ajo to oversee the move of 5,000 desert plants from Scottsdale to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum. (2014-2017). He is now enjoying the small town life back in Ajo – but still planting trees, shrubs and cacti with his three man crew.

Judy Mielke, ASLA, and Senior Landscape Architect with Logan Simpson in Tempe, Arizona, has designed landscapes in the Southwest for more than 33 years. Her dual backgrounds in horticulture and design enable her to create landscapes that are both sustainable and aesthetically rich. She is the author of the award-winning book Native Plants for Southwestern Landscapes and has served as Associate Professor in Arizona State University’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design. Judy received her Bachelor of Science degree in Horticulture from Washington State University and her Master of Environmental Planning degree from Arizona State University.

Rod Stanger, ASLA is a Senior Landscape Architect at Logan Simpson with over 28 years of experience. Throughout his career Rod has worked closely with the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) on numerous highway construction projects. Rod’s responsibilities have included supervising large scale plant salvage and replanting operations as well as implementing environmental mitigation efforts and monitoring erosion and sediment control activities to ensure compliance. Rod has developed land forming techniques for restoring waste and borrows sites on large-scale highway projects throughout the state of Arizona. Rod received his Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degree from Utah State University.

How To Move A Botanical Garden

Moving the Wallace Desert Garden’s plant collection – 5,000-plus specimens of trees, shrubs, cacti, and other succulents – was a massive undertaking. Learn how a team of landscape architects, architects, horticulturists, and plant relocation specialists orchestrated the move and designed a new setting for the plant collection at Boyce Thompson Arboretum.