All things botanical, Part 3

 

Sorry for the blogging hiatus! I've actually been busy doing some pretty interesting things, though, and now that I can catch up with blogging I hope to have some posts that are worth the wait.

But first I want to finish up my "botanical" series with shots from the current exhibits, and my more recent trips, to the wonderful San Antonio Botanical Garden. The first part of the series highlighted the clever origami sculptures that were spread throughout the garden earlier this year. But the current themed exhibits are even cooler.

As you can see above, they've done a reproduction of Frida Kahlo's Casa Azul, which features plants that she cultivated at the original, along with informational and inspirational displays where you can learn about the amazing careers of herself and her husband Diego Rivera.

This is the particularly striking reproduction of their Aztec pyramid, a great setting for some of these plants...

What's even more fun about the exhibit is the collection of animal sculptures scattered throughout the gardens. The animals depicted are ones that Frida especially admired; some of them are species that she kept as pets at the Casa Azul.

My young visitors in particular enjoyed searching for the animals as we toured the gardens on one of our multiple visits. (On another visit they were able to participate in a craft activity that resulted in the adorable Frida-inspired headdresses you can see at the right.)

Here are some of the animals...

In addition to the animals, there are these arresting statues of the lady herself...

All kinds of reasons to visit, and re-visit this wonderful place!

Re-visits are really a must (which is why membership in the Garden is practically required), since of course plants do different things over time. Here's an example: these artichoke-like things (are they artichokes?) were just buds earlier in May...

Aren't they spectacular?! And, of course, there are almost always sections of the Garden that were missed on an earlier visit. Like the conservatories, which we passed up a couple of times and then finally got to see.

the carnivorous plants were a hit with the kiddos

...and get a load of this staghorn fern! Gigantic!

I promise to get to my further-afield adventures next. But I also plan to make more visits to the Garden during the summer and see what changes are underway.

'Nuff said!

 

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All things botanical, Part 2

 

Eagle eyes will note that the above is not a shot of the San Antonio skyline. Yes, other cities have botanical gardens, too!

I do have more to show you about our local center, but I recently visited Austin's, and found it different, but just as nice.

I think it's actually been around longer than ours, and while not quite as extensive, the maturity of its landscape and hardscape leads to its distinctiveness. Not to mention a couple of unique (or at least not represented in SA's garden) features:

One of the garden's bonsai trees...
Cedar elms! like, and unlike, what we have in our front yard

Dino garden!

The "dinosaur garden" not only featured the cute sculpture you see above, but the plants in the area were mostly primitive as well. Visitors thereby get an idea of what kinds of flora those ancient fauna might have been familiar with. An example is at the right. 

Quite an imaginative and lovely space, which also has an impressive waterfall.

We were lucky with the weather for our visit, as it was overcast and a little cool, but I suspect this garden might be visitable even when the temps get summery, since most of its paths are so shaded.

I have to add a couple of lovely shots I took during another Austin excursion, to another garden. This was the Mayfield Park and Preserve, otherwise known as the peafowls' hangout. Unfortunately they weren't posing for me this day, but you can see some pretty spectacular photos of them at the link above. I'll just show you a couple of flower pix:

their lily ponds are wonderful

fabulous amaryllis!

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