Greetings! My husband and I just got back from visiting good friends in St. Louis, Missouri this past weekend, and while there, we made time for our usual spring visit to the
Missouri Botanical Garden (MOBOT). Our trip was a few weeks later than usual, so we missed the peak of the spring tulips, cherry blossoms and flowering dogwoods, but there were still some azaleas blooming, and the irises and peonies were at their peak, among other beauties.
Here are a few snapshots:
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| The 14-acre Japanese Garden is easily the most impressive garden area. |
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| I caught a bird trying to erase the carefully raked patterns in the sand... |
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| The garden is full of beautiful vignettes like this one. |
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| A lovely waterfall surrounded by azaleas and conifers. |
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| The peonies were just coming out in the Japanese Garden. |
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The Iris Garden was truly at its peak over the weekend, and it was
really hard to get a photo without people in it (they swarmed
around the colorful flowers like bees). |
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| What beautiful colors! |
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| The entrance to the Chinese Garden. |
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A large Tai Hu stone. These are made of porous sandstone from the Tai Hu Lake area that
has been worn away by water, and are highly prized in Chinese gardens.
(I lived in China for two semesters when I was in college and speak Mandarin, so
I especially enjoy visiting this garden.) |
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| A view across the pond in the Chinese Garden, from the other side of the Tai Hu stone, shown at right center. |
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| Because I have been designing and planting my new island bed areas of mixed trees and shrubs, I found the MOBOT's examples of these, here in the Victorian District of the gardens, to be of great interest. |
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| A shot of the Victorian District, taken from a Victorian-style observation tower. The house of Henry Shaw, the garden's founder, is pictured, with its high tower for even better garden observation. An evergreen maze is at bottom left, and the carpet bedding in the tapestry garden is just discernible at the far right. |
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The stand of Dawn Redwoods (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) is truly impressive.
The trees were thought extinct until they were discovered in a valley in China.
A 1948 expedition yielded seeds that were distributed to botanical gardens,
including the MOBOT. |
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The Center for Home Gardening Flower Trial Garden demonstrates the performance of many varieties of pansies.
(I love pansies!) |
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| Here I am, enthroned in the Ottoman Garden. |
What a great (although somewhat hot) day for a garden visit! Every time we visit the MOBOT, I learn something new and get new ideas for my own gardens. I think this must be one of the very best public gardens in the Midwest, and I hope you'll get a chance to visit it yourself.
Thanks for reading!
-Beth
The TaiHu stone is incredible! I wish I had it in my garden. The space you visited is lovely.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting, Aga. The Chinese have a great appreciation for "scholar's stones," or stones of interesting shape or characteristics, like the Tai Hu stones. And I agree, I too would like to have such interesting stones in my own gardens, despite that there is very little stone indigenous to my area.
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