We're at the Green Bay Botanical Garden again today because there were so many wonderful things about it, I couldn't fit them all into one post! Spenser is finding the map very interesting, especially the location of the koi pond.
His Madness and I have visited a lot of gardens over the years. They're all very different from one another and the ones we see frequently add new features all the time. Sadly, over the past decade, most of them have moved to simpler, low maintenance designs and skipped labeling their plants altogether. I assumed it was due to a lack of visitors which in turn, produced a lack of funds. It seemed like botanical gardens were eventually becoming a thing of the past.
That was not the case here. This garden is well maintained, lavishly planted and every last flower and shrub has a label. It could be due to generous patrons, there is a pretty obvious corporate presence, but it also may be the result of the Horticultural Landscaping Department of the local technical college. There were lots of people at work when we were there.
Whatever the case, it's really nice to walk around a garden that is well cared for.
Sometimes it's the small details that make the biggest difference.
Like the annuals that coordinate with the autumn colors of the trees. This begonia is just to the left of the bench in the photo above. It looked beautiful with the yellow and brown trees nearby.
This grass, shown to the right of the bench in the photo above, is a shorter form of the one that grows wild practically everywhere in our area. However, this small planting looked perfect.
Then there's the roses! I can't believe the number of sad rose gardens I've seen over the last five years. Many large botanical gardens have totally given up and removed them completely. I was beginning to think they were becoming impossible to grow due to beetle infestations or some systemic problem.
I was so happy to see this truly spectacular rose garden, still going strong, that I forgot to take a photo of the whole thing, duh! I'm seriously considering volunteering there next summer to learn how they keep everything looking so wonderful. It's only an hour's drive each way, ha! Totally worth it!
There weren't many people around on the day we visited although we kept crossing paths with a rather large group of young Mennonite women. This is the Stumpf (pronounced stump) Belvedere. Classy, right?
In spite of its silly name, the ceiling was cool - until it started to rain, ha!
Another complete surprise was this Prickly Pear Cactus. It's growing next to the steps of a building used by the local technical school for their landscaping courses. I had to google it because it looked like it had been there for awhile and I couldn't believe a desert plant could live through our winters. Sure enough, they can survive temperatures as low as 35 degrees below zero!
Finally, this is the Stumpf Hobbit House, aka. the restrooms. The Bag End look for public toilets is probably pretty common other places but this is the first one I've actually seen in our area. It's so cute I will have to keep my tasteless jokes about the sponsors name to myself.
There's nothing like a little bit of Middle Earth at the farthest end of a long walk through a pretty garden. Now we may have to buy our next car from Les Stumpf Ford.
Thanks for stopping by, see you tomorrow!
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