Moorten Botanical Garden has delighted strolling tourists and nature lovers for decades with more than 3,000 varieties of cactus and other desert plants. The two-acre garden sits at the foot of the San Jacinto Mountains in Palm Springs.

Meandering dirt paths take visitors past marked exhibits of barrel, cholla and saguaro cactus. Ocotillo, yucca and agave plants thrive nearby. And there's shade from palm trees, palo verde trees and smoke trees.

The desert garden's species span the hot, dry regions of the globe, including the American Southwest, Africa, Mexico, Central America and South America.

"Everything you see in this garden, we put in," said co-owner Clark Moorten, 59. He's the son of the founders, Patricia and "Cactus Slim" Moorten.

"A garden is like a piece of artwork -- it's a work in progress and never quite finished. Things live, things die, things come, things go."

But some things endure.

Moorten Botanical Garden started 65 years ago and has grown into a major tourist attraction. It's also a retail nursery.

World renown

Each year, several thousand paying visitors from as far away as Europe come to see its treasures. The garden includes what's billed as the world's first "cactarium." The enclosed exhibit includes rare and exotic species of cactus and other succulent plants with thick, fleshy tissue for storing water.

Moorten points out the welwitschia, which grows in a desolate area of southwestern Africa where no rain falls. The plant survives on fog that rolls in and builds up moisture on its big, broad leaves. Later, the dew falls to the ground and wets the soil, Moorten said.

It's just one of many plants on display at the botanical garden.

"I'm told by people that we're listed in every travel book in Europe," Moorten said. "We get people from all over the world.

"In mid-summer, it might be 118 degrees. But they will be out here seeing and enjoying the garden -- one step from death."

Keeping it natural

Moorten says gardens reflect the personality of those tending them. He likes to keep things natural. Skirts are left on palm trees. A dead leaf remains on an agave plant.

"This garden matches my personality," he said. "It's sort of peaceful, but on the fringe, it's a little chaotic.

"We try to display the garden so that people really get a feel of nature here."

The garden has become an historical landmark in Palm Springs. And over the years, it's become a labor of love for the Moorten family.

A family affair

Patricia Moorten, 82, and her late husband spent years designing and planning a city botanical garden in Palm Springs. But in the late 1930s, the fledgling city worried about costs, shesaid.

The couple decided to push ahead on the botanical garden project, keeping alive their dream of a desert oasis.

In 1938, the couple opened a nursery on Indian Avenue. Over the years, they catered to stars with homes in the desert. Clients included Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Red Skelton, Phil Harris and Walt Disney.

In 1958, the Moorten's bought the property where the botanical garden now sits. Artist and photographer Steven Willard built the estate in 1929.

Cactus hot again

Over the years, landscaping fads come and go. But spiny cactus and other drought-tolerant desert plants have made a comeback in the last 10 to 15 years, Clark Moorten said.

"Pop culture determines what you like," he said. "For a lot of years, it was petunias and grass."

Only about seven or eight species of cactus are native to the Coachella Valley, he said. And the desert floor is too hot and dry for cacti such as the red barrel, beaver tail, hedgehog and two or three kinds of cholla cactus, he added. Those cacti grow in sandy areas near the foothills or up in the canyons.

Cary Santill, his wife, Tomoe, and their daughter, Umi, 6, explored the garden over Thanksgiving weekend. They were visiting from Huntington Beach.

Santill bent down and scraped away aphids sucking the juice out of a cactus.

"We love the desert," he said. "And the garden gives you a lot of variety in a very compact space.

"The desert has a lot to offer if you really get into it and take time to examine it."

Reach Steve Moore at (909) 849-4533 or stevemoore@pe.comIF YOU GO

Moorten Botanical Garden

Where: 1701 S. Palm Canyon Drive

When: Hours are 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. most weekdays and Saturdays. Closed Wednesdays. Sunday hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Admission: $2.50 for adults and $1 for children ages 5 to 15

Information: (760) 327-6555.