Browse Tag: Botanical Garden

Lessons at (and from) the Overland Park Arboretum & Botanical Gardens

Botanical gardens are amazing classrooms; kids can learn to appreciate the natural world, adults can learn to look up from our smartphones and appreciate the present, and gardeners can learn that it’s easy to have a beautiful garden when you have an army of staff and volunteers!

Beyond the lesson that we should give ourselves a break and not compare our own gardens with those that have full-time caretakers, we can pick up a few other ideas that are easier to implement than finding money in the budget for a full-time gardener. Continue Reading

Enjoying Tulip Time in Topeka

Happy Earth Day, friends!

It’s been a late spring, and I thought you deserved to see some beautiful spring flowers, so it was out of complete selflessness that I drove to Ted Ensley Gardens in Topeka, KS this week to take pictures of tulips in bloom.  It definitely had nothing to do with the fact that tulips are my favorite flower and that the 9.5 acre garden has more than 50,000 tulips on display.  Nope, my motivation was completely altruistic.  I enjoyed Tulip Time in Topeka for you.

Last year was the first fall I tried planting bulbs, and the ‘Spring Beauty’ crocus were a delightful promise of spring throughout March.  There has been a definite gap between the crocus fading and the rest of the garden awakening, though, so next year I have a plan: Continue Reading

Leu Gardens - TriColor Camellia - GardenTails blog

A winter visit to Leu Gardens

Pro tip: always grab a bottle of water before you start your tour of a 50-acre botanical garden in central Florida, even if it is February.  Otherwise, you may end up at the opposite end of the garden — surrounded by stunning Camellia blooms — when a part of your brain starts whining, “Are we done yet? I’m thiiiirsty.”  Trust me — it’s a tough task to fully appreciate the 230+ cultivars of Camellias Leu Gardens has on display when your brain is acting like a three-year-old at an art museum, so just make sure to bring water along. Continue Reading