Riverbanks Zoo & Botanic Gardens

BY SKEETER

 No, not a new critter in my GEORGIA GARDENS but an adorable Kola Bear instead. The Saint and I took a day to enjoy one of our favorite day getaways. The nearby "Riverbanks Zoo and Gardens" over the Savannah River in Columbia, SC. Tina once accompanied us to this wonderful place. Click Here to see that winter posting.

 Tina talked last week about her Baptisias and after seeing her photos, (Click Here to see) I do believe this to be Baptisias as well. What do you think Tina? These were standing tall and proud.

 I love curvy brick walkways. Wish I could afford to turn all my pathways in my gardens into brick.

 We have had such beautiful weather this spring that most of the rose bushes in the Rose Garden were already finished with their first blooming cycle. But this bush was giving us a real show with Viola's below.

This is one of my favorite views of the garden. I just love water in a garden.

 I looked high and low for tags but could not positively ID this plant. I believe it to be Larkspur.  

 It along with Globe Allium were the blooming beauties during this visit. I do not recall us ever being at the garden in May.

 I enjoy going to the same gardens during different times of the year. They seem so new with different things blooming. I have yet to visit during the heat of summer. Not sure I would enjoy that as I do not like the humidity of summer. Maybe one day I will endure the heat to check out the summer gardens.

 I could not get enough of these two bloomers together! They surrounded the entire garden and I loved the purples together. This garden is in the process of massive upgrades along with the Zoo! Not sure where the funding is coming from but so happy to see it thriving when so many times nature and animals are put on the bottom of the list due to funding.

The reason this is one of my favorite places is Animals and Gardens! My two favorite things together!

We are excited about the expansions and plan to get back to the RIVERBANKS ZOO & BOTANICAL GARDENS, In the Garden...

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Part 3: Visiting the Chicago Botanic Garden in Late October

Today we will finish our virtual visit to the Chicago Botanic Gardens with a stop in the Japanese Garden. I have never before seen a Japanese garden and was enthralled with the serene beauty of it all.

It is a paradise for all to see and enjoy. The evergreen trees are pruned in a style called 'cloud pruning'. It is a horizontal type of pruning that completely changes the way an evergreen looks.

The migrating Canada Geese also enjoyed the garden. Some of the islands (and I believe this was one of them) are off limits to visitors. These two islands are only for visiting birds. How nice is that? The birds are left undisturbed to stop for a bit on their migration paths and the visitors to the gardens can enjoy them from afar such as what I was able to do. It's a good thing my camera has a great zoom to capture these birds as they were a long way away.

Okay, we leave the Japanese garden and wander on the nicely paved paths. I am for some reason fascinated with the pointy evergreens. I think it is because I like that wow factor. Sometimes gardens can get boring so when you put in a sky scraping pointy evergreen that is not too overwhelming but which raises the bar a bit the garden gets exciting!

This area is the Dwarf Conifer Garden. Our guide (we rode a tram and since we were the only ones aboard we got a good overview of the gardens) told us that many visitors were not utilizing this giant staircase to go up into the conifer garden. The garden staff decided the solution was to plant some conifers in the staircase by taking out some rocks and creating planting pockets. The hope is that people will be more apt to climb the stairs.

The Rose Garden was splendid! It is the best I've seen. The roses were all massed nicely and looked extremely healthy. Mr. Fix-it and I endeavored to smell quite a few of the blooms. Many of the hybrid teas had no scent but we found one that was a true rose smell. The name of it was 'Tiffany' and it was a lovely pink rose.

This is not 'Tiffany' but I wanted to show a shot with both rose hips and blooms in the picture. The rose hips and blooms made for an interesting rose bush and was yet another reminder we visited at the end of the garden season.

We will finish our visit to the Chicago Botanic Garden in the Heritage Garden. I was most curious about this huge and rather intimidating yet beautiful bronze sculpture. Can you guess who it is? It is a sculpture of Carl Linnaeus. Linnaeus is the father of binomial nomenclature-the naming system we use to name all of our plants. He is a very important man in horticultural history and no self respecting gardener would not know his name-though they might not know how handsome he was! Maybe it was just the sculpture:) This garden pays tribute to the world's botanical gardens. Around Linnaeus is a wild and jumbled disorder of plants (figuratively more than literally) and as you spread out from this sculpture the plants are organized by country of origin. I loved looking at each and every one of the countries and where all the plants came from. For instance, I knew that Hydrangea arborescens and Hydrangea quercifolia were both native to the United States. I also knew that Hydrangea paniculata was not but I never gave it any thought about where this hydrangea came from. It comes from....Asia!


My favorite plant in the Heritage Garden at this time of the year had to be a cool milkweed called Gomphocarpus fructicosus, aka Milkweed. This milkweed is not native to the United States though. It is native to South America. The pods were the coolest pods ever.


And lastly my traveling partner. Not only is he my best friend, and husband of many years, but he is a partner in the truest sense of the word. We are equals and enjoy being together so very much. Our children are all grown up and this was the first weekend away for just the two of us. We had a super wonderful time on our weekend in Chicago just doing our thing and not rushing here and there and trying to see everything. Sometimes travelers just need to slow down and enjoy the journey. I am very grateful we were able to do this on our weekend away....

in the garden....

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Part 2: Visitng the Chicago Botanic Garden in Late October

Continuing on with our tour of the Chicago Botanic Garden we find ourselves still in the Landscape Gardens. This area shows a raised bed with a nice mix of conifers, grasses and groundcovers. This garden also shows plants that are drought tolerant and do well in this type of 'scree' garden. I adore the rock edging in this area.

Right next to the Landscape Gardens is the Model Railroad Garden. This area was quite a large area had a nice collection of plants as well as miniature buildings representing well known landmarks throughout the United States. There is an extra fee of $5 to visit this particular garden.

Like the Huntsville Botanical Garden the Chicago Botanic Garden also had a bonsai collection. I took a few photos but am posting only the base of one of the bonsai specimens. I think if you use your imagination you can imagine this scene could be a full sized scene in any forest, but instead it is in a pot in a courtyard at the Chicago Botanic Gardens.

A picture by one of the lakes. Weeping willows seem to do quite well along the shorelines we visited here at these gardens.

'October Skies' was in full bloom. This aster is one of my favorites for designs I do for my clients.

The gardens did not have a lot of formal water features but did have a few informal ones. This one is in the area called the Waterfall Garden. It was near the Japanese Garden (we'll see that one Friday) right across from a lake. The sound of the multiple waterfalls was very natural and soothing. The cascading plants and abundance of plant material made me think I was in the mountains. It was a lovely area.

Lastly we'll finish with another picture that reminds us it is indeed fall in the United States. Fall comes much earlier to the Chicago area than to Tennessee but it is no less beautiful....

in the garden...

So glad the election is over! I worked in a local polling station in my state yesterday and can tell you that was quite an experience! All of the voters were most joyful and happy to vote which really helped make the very busy day go by faster...

in the garden.... 

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Part 1: Visitng the Chicago Botanic Garden in Late October

On my recent trip to northern Illinois my husband and I not only visited the Wheels of Time Museum in the Peoria area but we also spend a weekend in the Chicago area. Chicago is about two and one half hours from Peoria so we decided to get a hotel for two nights so that we could explore Chicago at our leisure. And explore we did! This week I'll be posting pictures from our visit to the Chicago Botanic Garden; which is located about 20 miles north of Chicago. I took so many pictures so I am breaking up the posts into three posts so as to not overload you all. 

I have uploaded some of the many photos I took in sequential order so you'll be seeing parts of the garden in the order we saw them. First of all let me say that the Chicago Botanic Gardens are very friendly towards members of the Armed Forces and their veterans. Our admission was free. Be sure to ask for this discount no matter where you travel if you are a member or a veteran of the Armed Force. Even at full price the fee was a reasonable $20 per car for parking. If you wish to visit the gardens (and tons of people were there on the very cold Sunday we visited) bring along the family to maximize the benefits. 

We start just prior to entering the visitors hall. Outside of this lovely and modern building was a map of the gardens along with some cut flowers showing some of the many flowers in bloom and their locations in the garden. This was a helpful map for us although almost all flowers in the gardens are marked with easy to find markers.You can see that even in late October there was still plenty of color to be found in the gardens.

Once you leave the visitors center you walk out into the garden under an amazing display of pumpkin colored mums. I don't know how the staff did this display but it was splendid!

You next come to water gardens where water plants of all kinds were blooming. We were told by our guide that these ponds were heated thus allowing the water plants to bloom for a longer period of time.

I am not sure where I took this picture but I liked all the color and textures. If I had taken the same picture in spring or even summer it would be completely different. That is the beauty of gardens and I want to stress that gardens can be beautiful in ALL seasons and have colors in all seasons. I am sure that even in winter the Chicago Botanic Garden has tons of color. The key with these gardens is to mass the same type of plants, play with different textures and colors, and ensure the heights are compatible.

This picture my eyes are drawn to the upright evergreens although all together all of the plants make for interest. The lattice arbor is draped with what looked like to be Sweet Autumn Clematis (one of my least favorite vines), there is a fothergilla (the red leaved shrub), lavender (gray short subshrub), and roses as well. This view also borrows views in the distance. The one thing about the Chicago Botanic Garden is that the property is laid out in gently rolling swales that tumble amongst islands and lakes. It was an amazing garden.

On one side of the English Walled Garden (designed by John Brookes--the famous garden designer that I actually took an online garden design class from) was this serene pool of water you can overlook to let your eye travel to the lake beyond. The autumn leaves dangling from the tree (probably a redbud) are punctuation points to the serene scene.


And we finish out this post with a view outside of the English Walled Garden of a traditional English garden border. If you look at the first picture you can see the purple flower prominently displayed. It is Salvia leucantha 'Midnight'. Rounding out this view are perennial sunflowers (in the background) which are probably Helianthus 'Maximillion' or something similar, and the white daisy in the foreground is probably Leucanthemum x superbum. I have to apologize for not knowing all of the flower names and botanical descriptions. I did not write them all down so I am relying on my memory here. Specific cultivars may vary from what I have posted. You are certainly welcomed to check the excellent Chicago Botanic Garden website of "What is in bloom this week".

in the garden....

My apologies to friends on Facebook who may have seen the last picture before. I liked it so much I had to post it twice. For those of you reading this blog who are not friends of Coach In the Garden on Facebook please like my page found here: Coach In the Garden
On this page I post specific garden related pictures and plants from garden tours as well as from my own garden. I also post links to the blog that contain garden related issues and I post pertinent garden information that may be of interest to Zone 6/7 gardeners. Thanks.  

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Atlanta Botanical Garden

BY SKEETER  

 Tuesday, I showed you some fun Scarecrows at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. Now lets take a peek at some of the blooming colors. We did not hang around to watch the dancing waters. I am sure they are awesome as most dancing water features I have seen.

I have no idea what this apricot colored beauty is but it was beautiful and glowing with the sun shining upon it.  

Let's sit and think a bit shall we?  

 Water fountain in the middle of the Food Court. We enjoyed a danish and cup of coffee in the cafe. A bit nippy to sit outside until the sun warmed things up a bit.

 The Fountain courtyard is surrounded by succulents.  

Succulents in big pots.   

This walkway was the brightest spot in the entire garden. Well, the outside portion of the garden.   

Panning back, you can see a mirror image on both sides of the bridge. As if walking into the gates of heaven!  

Spots of color tell of the Fall Season. We were captivated by the elephant ear type plant in the back. The leaf of the plant made a cup of sorts. Was most neat.

Area for learning in the children's garden. I bet many school children sit next to the frog while learning during the warmer months of the year.

Leaves in the pond tell a story of Fall.

Art work within the gardens. So difficult to capture a good long shot of white flowers.

One of many water features within the gardens.

One of two of my favorite blooms in this garden on this visit.

Ginger Lily (Zingiberaceae, Hedychium Coronarium) The scent was intoxicating to me! These beauties were found throughout the gardens.

I spotted an area of Creamy Yellowish White as well.

My second favorite bloom in the garden is this beautiful red explosion!

Firecracker Bush, (Rubiaceae, Bouvardia Ternifolia) I just know these plants call in the hummingbirds, although, gone for the season.

At this point my camera battery died. I put in the back-up and guess what? I forgot to charge it. Duh, so no pictures of the beautiful Orchids and Tropicals in the Fuqua Conservatory. Did you know the Orchid Center has the largest collection of species orchids on permanent display in the USA?  (Click Here to read more). No photos of the Rose Garden. No photos of the Atlanta Skyline peeking over the gardens. No photos of the amazing Edible Garden & Outdoor Kitchen with unique Herb Wall. No photo of the Vine Arbor, Japanese Garden or the huge Frogs we spotted amongst the Lotus Lily in the reflecting pond. Did you know the Fuqua Conservatory is working with the Atlanta Zoo to help conserve Gopher Frogs? (Click HERE to read more) Note to self: Make sure you check camera batteries with the next visit to the ATLANTA BOTANICAL GARDEN, In the Garden...  

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden