More than 3,000 varieties of cacti and succulents are displayed in this homespun garden.

The desert explodes into bloom at this compact garden housing very old (and thus very big) cacti. When bad health sent a "Keystone Kops" actor to live in the dry, hot desert with his biologist wife in the 1930s, they started a new business landscaping homes of Hollywood stars. And so the prickly tale of Moorten's begins. Their own garden grew to incorporate more and more varieties of desert vegetation and plants cultivated locally and brought back from trips abroad. Rare cacti are nursed in the "cactarium," a climate-controlled building that shelters plants from the harsh heat (and cold), and areas where plants are grouped with others from their part of the world—like family. All species are labeled with hand-painted pieces of wood or rock.