Pumpkin season at the Dallas Arboretum
October 28, 2023 While in Dallas last week I visited the Dallas Arboretum to see their annual pumpkin extravaganza. The last time I’d seen it was pre-Covid. Autumn at the Arboretum I was surprised to find that Autumn at the Arboretum has been relocated from a shady grove near the ...
Christy Ten Eyck-led tour of San Antonio garden
October 16, 2023 On Saturday I headed down San Antonio way for a Garden Dialogues event led by Christy Ten Eyck, principal of Ten Eyck Landscape Architects in Austin, at a private garden she designed in San Antonio’s Hill Country Village. Christy has long been an inspiration for her design ...
Moon gate and woodland garden at Boulder Haven
October 15, 2023 Have you ever seen a moon gate as beautiful as this one? I don’t think I have. It appears like a portal to another world around a back corner at Boulder Haven, the home garden of designer Carol Verhake in Berwyn, Pennsylvania. Carol’s garden was on the ...
Italian Water Garden, trees, and treehouses at Longwood Gardens
October 02, 2023 One of my favorite picture books from my childhood is Marcia Brown’s Cinderella, which received a Caldecott Medal in 1955 for Brown’s enchanting illustrations. Jeweled ball gowns, romantic palace grounds, fairy godmother magic — it all came to sparkling life on the page. I haven’t paged through ...
Philadelphia Area Fling and Andrew Bunting’s Belvidere
September 28, 2023 A gravel garden in the front yard of Andrew Bunting’s Belvidere I spent all last week in the beautiful countryside around Philadelphia for the 14th annual Fling (formerly known as Garden Bloggers Fling), touring private and public gardens with around 100 other garden writers, bloggers, Instagrammers, YouTubers, ...
Old San Antonio style in Melody’s garden
June 12, 2023 While in San Antonio two weeks ago, I met up with my friend Melody, who invited me to see her garden again. I first visited 9 years ago — whaaaat? where does the time go? — and was eager to see it again. In her large flower ...
Organic sculptures by Steve Tobin at Houston Botanic Garden
February 22, 2023 When I fled to Houston during Austin’s ice storm aftermath earlier this February, I made a visit with family to Houston Botanic Garden. Even in Zone 9 Houston, winter had not spared palms, grasses, and many other plants. Still, an art exhibit by Steve Tobin called Intertwined: ...
Pond of the Blue Moon and bird- and gator-watching at Shangri La Botanical Gardens
December 16, 2022 Yesterday I introduced you to Shangri La Botanical Gardens & Nature Center, which sits along a bayou in Orange, Texas, right at the Louisiana border, and I shared a tour of the inner gardens. Today I’ll complete the tour starting at the back of the 250-acre property, ...
Shangri La Botanical Gardens, a garden fairy tale
December 15, 2022 Dancing Sisters bottle tree sculpture at Shangri La Sleeping Beauty has nothing on Shangri La Botanical Gardens & Nature Center. Located in the small town of Orange, Texas, just across the Sabine River from Louisiana, Shangri La’s very existence is in some ways as fantastical as the ...
Native plants and Hill Country style at Paula Stone’s Fredericksburg garden
October 25, 2022 Two Fridays ago a couple of friends and I drove out to Fredericksburg, a charming town in the Texas Hill Country, founded in the mid-1800s by German immigrants and built out of native limestone block, pressed-tin ceilings, and galvanized roofs. We’d been invited to visit by Paula ...
Ojos y Manos at Santa Fe Botanical Garden
September 21, 2022 The Ojos y Manos: Eyes and Hands Garden hadn’t opened the first time I visited Santa Fe Botanical Garden. So during my return visit last month, I was happy to be able to explore it. (Here’s Part 1 of my recent visit.) Ojos y Manos, an educational ...
James David and Gary Peese’s new garden in New Mexico
September 09, 2022 Landscape architect James David and Gary Peese departed Austin about 5 years ago, leaving behind a 36-year-old, swoon-worthy garden that regularly starred on Open Days Tours and was covered by Martha Stewart, Architectural Digest, and, ahem, yours truly (click for my final visit). Looking for cooler weather, ...
Thai sala and tropicalesque garden at Olbrich Botanical Gardens
August 19, 2022 For my final post about the Madison Fling back in June, I’ll share the Thai Garden, a surprisingly exotic-looking space at Olbrich Botanical Gardens. First, that glimmering golden pavilion! Called a sala, such a pavilion “is a common structure in Thailand generally used as a shelter from ...
Planted plaza, fountains, and rose garden at Olbrich Botanical Gardens
August 15, 2022 For Part 2 of my visit to Olbrich Botanical Gardens during June’s Madison Fling, I’ll show you the Rose Garden. I confess the words “rose garden” never perk up my ears. Sure, I like roses OK, but so many rose gardens are really rose ghettos, planted in ...
Snapshots from Olbrich Botanical Gardens’ meadow, event, and herb gardens
August 12, 2022 Coneflowers at the entrance to Olbrich While in Madison for the Fling back in June, I had time for a pre-Fling visit to Olbrich Botanical Gardens, and then of course the garden was on the official tour schedule as well. Double Olbrich! I first visited this fine ...
In the moment at Rotary Botanical Gardens
July 21, 2022 Entry pollinator garden, and one of the last photos from my old Nikon Something unwelcome happened to me at Rotary Botanical Gardens on the last day of the Madison Fling. My trusty old Nikon D5000 camera croaked. Well, it didn’t actually die, but the shutter began to ...
