More Behind the Scenes Stories

Did You Know? Fast Facts from the Disneyland Resort, Part Eleven

Kevin Rafferty, Jr.

by , Communications, WDI

Happy Earth Month!

Did you know 779 new trees have been planted in Disney California Adventure park as part of the five-year expansion? To give you a glimpse into those in Cars Land we have John Schrimsher, horticulture manager of the Disneyland Resort, in this installment of our “Did You Know” video series.

For more Fast Facts from the Disneyland Resort, check out these posts:

Comments

  • Cars Land is such a stark contrast to the rest of the resort. I love it. It is like a mini trip to Utah, New Mexico and Arizona. The vegetation is spot on. It is a truly immersive experience. Can’t wait to experience it with my kids.

  • Ooh, I see some saguaro cacti in the background, and a few in the pictures of Cars Land that were featured in an earlier post! I live in Phoenix, Arizona and have heard that while saguaro are very happy here in their native Sonoran desert, they can be picky about other climates. How do they fare in Southern California? Are there special techniques used by the horticulturalists at Disneyland to help the saguaro thrive, or is there additional Disney Magic involved to bring the beauty of saguaro cacti to Cars Land?

  • The extent that Disney has gone to landscape Cars Land and Buena Vista Street is remarkable, and the results are fantastic. It did make it tough for anyone else to find certain specimens, though! Recently, a stately 300 year old oak tree that was a fixture in a major intersection in the city of Thousand Oaks, California (yes, they value their trees so much they named the city after them) succumbed to old age and disease, sadly. The City, to their credit, immediately set out to replace it with a full grown, mature tree of the same species and mind you, purchase, delivery and planting of a tree that large is very expensive. They had a very difficult time locating a tree that met their specs because lately, Disney has been buying up all of the large specimens from every nursery in the region. And we all know where those trees are going! Thousand Oaks luckily was able to purchase the last large oak that Disney hadn’t already snapped up.

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