Tag Archives: plants

Winter visit to the conservatory 2015

Each winter we try to make at least one trip to our beloved conservatory that is just down the street a piece.  It’s the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory, formerly known as the Como Conservatory and it’s located in Como Park in St. Paul, MN.  If you’d like to checkout my posts from the last two years’ visits, you can find them here and here.

This year’s visit was perfectly timed in that the temp was 12 when we left the house.  It’s a bit windy today so the wind that blew in our faces as we ran to the entrance probably made it feel like 5.  BRRRR!!! We felt much better in the warmth of the conservatory and then waited a few minutes for our glasses to defog.

As usual, we saw many beautiful flowers and plants.  I also see something new each time I visit.  For example,  I had never seen the “hairy” bark of a palm tree before.  There’s a photo of it in the mix below.  I hope you’ll enjoy today’s visit with me while I show you what I saw.

We started in the sunken garden where it’s already spring.

No visit is complete without seeing the fern room.

Then of course there are the lovely orchids that are found throughout the different rooms.  They are so beautiful.  Which is your favorite orchid?

We always enjoy the bonsai room:

And then a mish mosh of other photos:

 

 

 

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CBBH Photo Challenge – Pink

Oooooooooooooooo!! I have lots of pink in photos!! So I’m excited to put this post together for this month’s CBBH photo challenge.  I’m starting with a recent photo that I absolutely love.  There is a debate as to whether this is a hollyhock or a hibiscus flower.  But one thing everyone agrees on is that this bloom is beautiful:

That photo above looks best on its own but here’s a gallery of some of my favorite pinks:

The other part of this challenge is to include links to two blogs that I’ve visited and commented on in the last month.  I think redstuffdan followed me and that’s how I found his site.  So far, I’ve really enjoyed his photos. Go have a look, I bet you’ll like it too.

This is one of my latest follows as well, the colonialist looks like another fun one, full of interesting posts!

Enjoy!

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Beauty seen yesterday

Just a quick post to share some beauty I saw and managed to capture in photos yesterday.  First, this gorgeous sunrise whilst waiting for the bus:

Next a couple of photos of what I’m guessing are hibiscus.  I didn’t think they wintered here but my friend in Illinois tells me she has seen hibiscus there so guessing she is correct.  There was another, bright red one in this same garden in front of the St. Paul Hotel.  Alas, it was too windy to get that one and it was time to head back to the office:

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summer gardening fun

Well, that weatherman who said that summer was over was just plain wrong.  It’s back!! Not quite by popular demand.  We’re having another heat wave, back into the 90s for the next several days.  Thank goodness there is A/C!  Meanwhile,  I’ve taken a lot of photos of things growing in the last few weeks that I wanted to share.  I hope you enjoy.

To start, a short story of the squash/melon/pumpkins growing on our fence.  Hubby heard that we had melons on our fence.  But I thought our neighbor had planted squash.  It looked like squash, bloomed like squash.  So we thought we’d take the largest one off the vine and cook it, thinking it was summer squash and the person who told hubby these were melons was mistaken.  After it was cut we thought it sure looked like a pumpkin just not matured.  It’s the dark green gourd as well as the one cut open that you see in the gallery below.  We cooked it, tasted it and declared it an early, bland tasting pumpkin.  A few days later I asked my neighbor what he planted and he said it was different kinds of pumpkins.  He mentioned that his mother put the vines on the fence.  We were both thinking that was probably not the best idea. Here’s a gallery with some of the pumpkins growing on our fence.

Next, some other things growing in the garden.  These tomatoes are yummy:

My neighbor’s arugula, two views:

Some other things blooming right now:

a little bee action

Let me squeeze in another rudbeckia, black eyed Susans:

Balloon flowers.  The first is a singular blossom with a bud of Joe Pye Weed behind it.  I especially like the second one that shows one in bloom, one that has bloomed and another blossom on the way:

Next another little gallery of photos from the cabin this past week:

And just a few other photos.  A red day lily and morning glory in my yard and petunias in downtown St. Paul:

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Weekly Photo Challenge – Foreshadow

My garden immediately leapt to mind for this week’s theme.  So I gathered a few pics of flowers and veggies in their various forms.   To view more entries, click here.  I hope you enjoy!

Veggies ready to eat, others forming:

Season’s end clean-up, a different kind of foreshadow:

Flowers in bloom and budding:

Lastly, one of my faves, moon flowers:

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Mid-summer blooms

You know what I heard on the radio this afternoon?  You’ll never guess, so I will tell you.  Summer is over??? So, let me see.  We had one of the longest winters ever, one of the worst springs ever (basically non-existent), a few weeks of summer and now it’s over??  The weatherman was saying that because we’ve cooled into the 70s that is the reason that summer is over.  Okay then.

But I still have blooms!!  And I want to share them.  The pink cone flowers are about at their peak.

One bright yellow day lily:

One purple balloon flower:

And I just about missed the peak of my Queen of the Prairies!  GASP!!  But I managed to get a few good shots.  I hope you enjoy them.  They are one of my faves.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Fresh

When I saw this week’s theme I thought I’d post photos of fresh veggies from my garden.  However, I decided to expand it a bit and include some other photos that fit the theme as well.  Up first, those fresh veggies. Fresh rhubarb, green beans and Thai basil:

I found several photos of fresh cut flowers from my garden.

I couldn’t resist sharing these beautiful flowers that hubby gave me for our anniversary several years ago.  Aren’t they beautiful? They’re also fresh :)

And finally, how about a fresh pan of paella?  Which reminds me, it’s time to make another paella!

Do check out other entries for this week’s challenge.  There are some fun ones!!

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