Part 1 of many! The botanic gardens here are set up like the Arnold Arboretum back in Boston – free to enter and quite easy to wander in and out of. And they’re only a half mile or so from my house!
Here, though, they’re very centrally located, which is awesome – I like to walk through them at night to get to one of the grocery stores. Going during the day obviously has its benefits as well!
For the first three months I was here, I was convinced that only pink and red and white flowers bloomed, but as it turns out, there’s lots of orange and yellow ones and even some blue – they all just started to bloom a month later than the pink-and-white ones.
In particular, this week the rhododendrons were blooming! One of my professors, a former botanist, told us that this was the week to go and she was absolutely right.
I have no idea what these flowers are (if you know, please let me know in the comments!) but they were gorgeous. I’d love to have them as border plants in a garden.
And thanks to the botanical garden’s labels, I finally figured out these rose-looking plants are actually camellias! The flowers look similar to roses, but the leaves and smell are wrong.
This is a magnolia flower. Magnolia trees are my favorite trees but more importantly – I think I found Thumbelina’s home!
More of the rhododendron blooms – they’re quite striking!
This was the only landscape shot I took – all of the walkway through the rhododendron and azalea gardens was lined with trees and bushes like this and it created a very peaceful atmosphere. Several people were out sketching, reading, or sitting with friends.
And finally, these flowers – not sure what they are but I would love to know! Their shading reminds me of faded Levi’s.
Finally, pictures of the adorable baby ducklings I posted about earlier – aren’t they adorable? Their mom was trying to herd them away from the humans but they were having none of it.
Adventures with Rachel 