St. George attraction celebrates Christmas — and water conservation

St. George • It might be bereft of holly and ivy, snow and green grass or stately conifer trees, but a 5-acre garden nestled atop the cliffs overlooking downtown St. George is still giving thousands of visitors the Christmas spirit.

No, the garden doesn’t have a nativity with the Virgin Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus, but the garden does have Virgin River chub swimming in its stream. It sports more than 5,000 drought-resistant flora for guests to fawn over. Oh, and its meandering paths are decked with giant faux candy canes, oversized cupcakes, stars and a colorful palette of more than 75,000 Christmas lights.

Seasons greetings from Red Hills Desert Garden, an Edenic oasis that Trip Advisor tabs as St. George’s top tourist attraction — one that draws between 5,000 and 10,000 visitors a week during the holidays and 150,000 annually. It also, its owners hope, will do more to help people turn over a new leaf than any New Year’s resolution ever could.

“The main focus of the garden is to educate the public on two issues — first, to help them learn about our endangered fish; and second, to learn about water conservation,” said Zach Renstrom, executive director of the Washington County Water Conservancy District that owns and operates the garden. “And the only way we can educate people is if they actually come to the park. So we host these events to get people to go there. It’s been a phenomenal success.”

Red Hills Desert Garden, built at a cost of roughly $3.7 million, debuted in May 2015 with trails, bridges, pavilions, swings, interpretive signs, a replica slot canyon, waterways and water-wise plants, and glasslike panels that give visitors an underwater glimpse of fish Indigenous to the Virgin River, including the woundfin and the Virgin River chub, both of which are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act.

St. George helped make the garden a reality by transferring the ownership of the land to the water district, which provides the water and maintains most of the garden. The Virgin River Program, which helps out with the fish, maintains the glass that provides underwater views, among other things.

Steve Meismer, local coordinator for the Virgin River Program, said protecting Virgin River chub is important because it is an indicator species.

“If we start to see chub numbers decline, that means we’re seeing the decline of other species,” Meismer said. “We have a stewardship to care for these [fish] and animals who have been here for many years.”

Still, water conservation — especially during a historic drought — is priority one. Renstrom and others see the garden as a nice complement to the district’s Water Efficient Landscape Rebate, which pays businesses and homeowners up to $2 per square foot to scrap and replace grass with more water-efficient landscaping, with a maximum available rebate of $50,000.

Red Hills Desert Garden, which uses drip irrigation and drought-tolerant plants, uses 70% less water than a similarly-sized traditional garden and models what is possible with xeriscaping.

Garden manager Ryan White said the take-home message visitors can glean from the desert flora is obvious.

“You don’t have to sacrifice beauty to save water,” said White, who has a bachelor’s degree in landscape management from Brigham Young University and a master’s in landscape architecture from Utah State University.

“Oftentimes,” he added, “when people think of a desert landscape, cactus is what comes to mind. I like to push back and challenge that notion. “If you use the right plant, even a cactus in the right setting, it can be beautiful and you can mix and match. These plants have a place, and I want people to give them a second look.”

Trey Warren, who is relandscaping his home in nearby Bloomington Hills, comes to the district’s garden often to get ideas about what he might plant to conserve water.

“The number and variety of the plants and shrubs they have here is so mind-boggling I’m having difficulty wrapping my head around what I might try at home,” he said.

Ever the landscape architect, White is drawn to the agave due to its strong sculptural-like lines and the fact it comes in so many sizes, shapes and textures. But there are so many others to choose from — the Arapaho crape myrtle, maidenhead fern and the “Bubba” desert willow with its fragrant flowers that attract hummingbirds, just to name a few.

Still, people now frequenting the garden seem more focused on seeing the lights than on protecting fish or saving water.

“Honestly, the lights are so bright that the education aspect of the park is easy to overlook at this time of year,” admitted Mesquite, Nevada, resident Alycesun Woodward, there with her husband Mike and their three children. “But when we visit at other times we pay more attention to environmental issues like water conservation.”

Just as it does with plants, the district doesn’t stint with holiday décor. White and his three part-time employees pull out all the stops to spook up the garden for Halloween and follow that with an all-out blitz to spruce up the garden in time for the Christmas rush, which begins the night before Thanksgiving.

Besides a holiday hot spot, the garden has also become a hotbed for something else — marriage proposals.

White reckons about a dozen people get engaged there each year. “I usually don’t find out about them until I see them on Instagram,” he said.

As enamored with the holidays as some are, district officials hope they are not too wedded to them to forget the garden’s underlying purpose. When the garden has shed some of its holiday sheen, they hope its educational information will take root.

For his part, Meismer is confident that it will.

“If we can bring people to the information, then there’s a better chance they are going to walk away from the garden with that information,” he said. “And that’s good for us.”

Red Hills Desert Garden is open every day from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Admission is free.