Botanical Gardens

Last weekend we had the pleasure of taking Grandma Elsie to a local Botanical Gardens. The gardens comprise many acres that meander across beautiful hillsides and valleys.

The day we picked turnout out to be absolutely gorgeous.

It was a treat walking with Grandma and having her identify many of the plants were were seeing and telling stories about her lifelong love of gardening - and especially orchids. She shared with us how she had personally grown and enjoyed a great many of the bushes, trees and plants over the years!

It's pretty impressive to see how well Grandma can get around. The layout of the gardens required lots of up and down climbing.. and she did just absolutely great the whole afternoon.

One part of the gardens is the Arid House which houses hundreds of species from around the world. The oldest individual plant was from 1933 - a full 8 years after grandma was born. And, yes, if you read the text in the picture.. we found it!

As you can see from the photos - there was a lot to see and learn. One of our favorite sections was the Chinese Herb Garden. Within the garden are dozens of plants - each of which was marked with its medicinal uses. Take a closer look at the plaque from the Strawberry Geranium for an example! Apparently, it's quite a versatile plant!

It was humorous to think about the time and effort that goes into nurturing some of the scruffy looking plants that we saw. I think Julie's comment was something like 'man, that would be the first weed I would pick and throw away if I was tending this garden!' And I think she was right.

It was a fun afternoon and the gals picked up a couple plants to plant in our garden to remind us of the trip for years to come.

Enjoy the pictures.