04/10/2026
Cacti culture amid citrus culture: Founded in 1870, Riverside, California was recognized as the first area to plant citrus in the state. Due to the citrus agricultural boom that followed, by 1893 the city was the wealthiest per capita in the country.
According this article by The Raincross Gazette, in 1883, however, the first park in Riverside, later named White Park in honor of early park commissioner Albert S. White, had already been established.
In 1888 horticulturist Franz Philip Hosp was hired, and he, along with White, would establish what would be lauded by the Smithsonian Institute in 1908 as one of the most extraordinary cactus collections of the nation.
Hosp brought some cactus specimens from the Devil’s Garden area near Desert Hot Springs. In May of 1893, Hosp returned from a trip out to Twentynine Palms with a carload of splendid specimens of cacti.
With more than 200 varieties of cacti, the garden was a tremendous tourist draw. It was featured in The Christian Science Monitor in 1913, and Sunset Magazine in 1915.
By the 1930s, a fence was erected along the walkway separating park visitors from the cactus. The fence was intended to diminish the pilfering of the valuable plants.
In 1933, park officials worked on improving and bringing the White Park cactus garden back to the forefront. Twenty-five truckloads of new cactus soil were brought in, along with approximately 100 plants, including 10 new specimens for the park.
However, by 1942, many species of cacti were removed for transplanting to other locations due to a loss of interest in cacti by the public and the continued theft of any rare unusual species.
In the mid-1990s, White Park fell on hard times, and the park remained closed down until 2001.
The newly redeveloped park included a cactus garden which hinted at the historical portion created and nurtured by Franz Hosp and Albert White.
The once-splendid, world-class cactus garden has been reduced to a handful of specimens in a small, bare area, but plans to revitalize the cactus garden are in the near future.
https://www.raincrossgazette.com/from-desert-jewel-to-hidden-gem-the-story-of-riversides-white-park-cactus-garden/
