Desert Messenger

12 www.DesertMessenger.com August 12, 2015 1360 N. Moon Mountain, Quartzsite OPEN YEAR ROUND 1, 2, 3 Bedroom Rentals Available - Monthly/Annual NICE, CLEAN, QUIET Se Habla Espanol Drug Free Park 928-927-8929 www.TewsRV.com GREAT RATES! Call for Details! FAMILIES WELCOME! Call for Details! RJK CONSTRUCTION • No Job Too Small • Commercial • Residential • Remodeling LOCALLY OWNED & OPERATED Call Roy and Bob 928-345-5616 AZ License #13-1743 (Not a licensed contractor) "Old Grandpa" succumbs to disease By Joanne Winer One of the most frustrating and depressing things about working on a project where you put your heart and soul into it is when something happens that can't be helped but still changes things and not for the good. Several months ago, in Celia's Rainbow Gardens, the very first saguaro that stood proud and tall on the hill overlooking the amphitheater got infected with Saguaro Necrosis, a horrible black smelly goo that eats at the flesh and kills it little by little until the saguaro dies. When this hap- pened, we decided that rather than cut it down, we would try to preserve at least the spine after all the flesh had fallen off, and so far, it is working out--we plan to stabilize the skeleton in cement and put preservative on the spines and have it there as an educational display of what a saguaro looks like without all the flesh. Now, just last week, I received news from Dennis (Town Park em- ployee) that the second biggest saguaro, the one near the Rock and Gem pavilion and Mining Exhibit, was found in pieces, with all its arms broken off and unable to even have the skeleton saved. This was so upsetting to me that I cried again. This saguaro was donated to the Gardens by BLM and brought in from a roadway to a mine site where it had to be moved. It was brought on the back of a strange looking truck, and when I first saw it, I wasn't even sure I wanted it in the Gardens because it looked ugly to me. The center of the huge base spine was not there, and four arms were growing out of the top of the wound where it had been hit by lightning and the main spine had sheared off--(probably over a hundred years ago). One of the four arms came broken, and we ended up putting it in a splint (just like your arm) and tying it so it wouldn't break off, and darned if it didn't heal!! The man who brought it was named Helge, and it was he who planted the first saguaro also. He is a cactus expert from Yuma who BLM hired to bring in most of the saguaros in the Gardens. When he arrived with it, it was almost 5 p.m. on a Friday, and I had no one to dig the huge hole needed to place it in. After trying several people, I called Rex Byrd who was then mayor, and he said, "I'll be there in five minutes with my backhoe". and he was. Helge and I did some of the specialized digging (the backhoe dug the first few scoops but then the hole had to be done by hand so it wouldn't get too wide and not be able to hold the giant up. Helge got up in the bucket of the backhoe and Rex moved it as close to the broken arm as he could and Helge used an old carpet and some rope to splint the crack. I was determined to try to save the arm--by the time all this work was done, I loved this old cactus and after seeing all the trauma it had gone through and still survived, I knew I just had to do all I could to help it become one of the most interesting and well loved exhib- its in the Gardens. People often ask me why I keep trying to save almost dead trees, or why I spend so much time trying to keep the smallest trees alive. One man from a nursery who came out to give me advice said he would have DEADLINE : WED. AUG. 26 H for september 2 th edition Desert Messenger Email: editor@DesertMessenger.com 928-916-4235 www.DesertMessenger.com SEE SAGUARO PAGE 13 "O�� G������" | J����� W����

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