A Soft Heart and a Prickly Passion

January 31, 2023

John “Obie” Oberhausen. Photo: Cactus Rescue Project Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/cactusrescueproject/

The horticultural community in Santa Fe lost an important and well-loved friend on Christmas Eve of 2022. John “Obie” Oberhausen died after a long illness, having shared his love of cactus and desert succulents with hundreds of people and having inspired the planting of many cactus gardens in our area. One of the founders of the Cactus Rescue Project, Obie and the other members saved the endangered Santa Fe cholla from extinction and helped popularize this unusual local cactus.

I met Obie in 2010 when I was working as a plant consultant with Gary Smith, the landscape architect who designed the Santa Fe Botanical Garden. One of our goals in designing the Xeric Garden was to introduce people to plants that would thrive here in a hotter, drier future. The “hot box” near the main path was to be unirrigated and demanded the most heat and drought tolerant plants. Though I had worked in landscaping here for many years, I knew almost nothing about hardy cacti. I connected with Obie, who generously taught me a great deal about cacti that grow here and how to use them. One of the things I appreciated about Obie was that he shared Gary’s and my willingness to use “unproven” plants that looked promising, in his case cacti that “weren’t supposed to be hardy here”. When the time came to plant the garden, Obie donated many cacti from his own garden. Through sharing his own experience and his sense of humor, Obie taught us how to overcome our prickly fears and easily plant the cacti. The hot box is now a place where people who aren’t familiar with them can learn about these low maintenance, extremely drought tolerant plants that will help us keep our landscapes alive in the future. And like so many others who were inspired by his knowledge and generous nature, I now have a cactus garden at my home.

Tracy Neal, Santa Fe arborist, horticulturist, friend of the SFBG

I knew Obie Oberhausen for about 12 years, since we worked on the first phase of planting designs for the Botanical Garden (the Orchard Gardens).  His enthusiasm for cacti, especially those native to the Rocky Mountains and the American Southwest, was genuine and infectious.  He taught me and many other people to learn to love these prickly, tenacious succulents and to adopt them into our gardens and landscapes.

Obie was always generous with both knowledge and the cacti themselves; many of the specimens in our Xeric Garden were donated from his own collection.  In fact, Obie was adamant about their importance in our gardens; he gently reproached me more than once for not planting more cacti in favor of just about any other plant that would require watering!  He also chided Scott Canning for allowing Bridge’s Penstemon (Penstemon rostriflorus) to seed itself into the “Hot Box,” the garden we had designated to showcase cactuses.  (But rocks were ok; Obie came in to hand place several rocks around the Hot Box himself, when Scott and I didn’t get to that recommended job quickly enough!)

Nevertheless, Obie was warm and affable, never affecting a patronizing air about his horticultural passion.  He really just wanted to share the good news with others, and many times he called me personally to invite me to cactus open houses at his home or in the Eldorado cactus gardens.  I was bemused when I first learned of his vocation as a massage therapist, thinking that would be hard work for someone who regularly handled prickly plants.  But in fact, both his vocation and his avocation suited him perfectly and reflected his sincere care for the earth and its inhabitants.

Our hearts go out to Obie’s family and other loved ones.  We offer them best wishes and good memories of this kind, knowledgeable man.

Linda Churchill, SFBG

Read the Plant of the Month article dedicated to Obie this month.