Playing around at Fortlandia at the Wildflower Center
November 20, 2024 Each fall, Fortlandia brings a new set of forts to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center for kids (and adults) to play on. This year the forts include a butterfly plane, a snake climbing structure, a human-sized ant farm, and a monster in a treasure chest. I ...
More faux bois at San Antonio River Walk and Witte Museum
June 14, 2024 I went on a faux bois safari in San Antonio in April, hunting down all the faux bois — locally known as trabajo rústico — that I could find in one day. And I found a LOT. Check out my faux bois post here. But there’s far ...
Children’s Adventure Garden at Dallas Arboretum
November 20, 2023 The Rory Meyers Children’s Adventure Garden at Dallas Arboretum opened 10 years ago, but somehow I’d never visited until last month. Why? I guess because my kids had outgrown children’s gardens by the time it opened, and so it wasn’t on my radar despite many visits over ...
Jenny Rose Carey’s playful garden rooms at Northview, part 2
November 06, 2023 In my last post I showed you half of Jenny Rose Carey’s garden, Northview, which I toured during the Philadelphia Area Fling in September. Today I’ll show you the rest. Let’s start with her Fruits and Flowers Garden, where this Tin Man sculpture greeted me with open ...
Magical children’s garden and plant displays at Longwood’s conservatory
October 01, 2023 This is how happy you feel exploring Longwood Gardens on the first day of the Philadelphia Area Fling, an annual garden tour held in a different city each year for garden bloggers and Instagrammers and others publicly sharing about gardening online. Longwood’s conservatory manager, Karl Gercens, hosted ...
Exploring Fortlandia’s creative hideouts
December 21, 2022 Chrysaline fort Each fall through winter, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center entices kids and kids at heart to explore a handful of creative “forts” built by Austin landscape architects, architects, designers, and artists. It’s called Fortlandia, and I always go see it. This year, because the ...
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 ...
Kicking off Madison Fling: People, badgers, barns, and a bountiful rooftop garden
July 04, 2022 Farm country scenery at the Flower Factory near Madison In late June I joined approximately 50 garden bloggers, Instagrammers, podcasters, and YouTubers in picturesque Madison, Wisconsin, for the 13th annual Garden Bloggers Fling. After a COVID hiatus of two years, and a heroic display of patience, stamina, ...
Autumn meadows and monarchs at Wildflower Center
February 07, 2022 The Center’s iconic lookout tower, which doubles as a water-collecting cistern When Loree of Danger Garden came to Austin last October, we visited the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center on her last day. I was happy she got to see it a second time, particularly since her ...
Enchanted Woods and reflecting pool garden at Winterthur, part 2
February 03, 2022 Tulip Tree House, made from a hollow tulip poplar trunk Children’s gardens are popping up like toadstools at botanical gardens everywhere nowadays. And they’re a welcome addition, encouraging families to visit and giving children, who increasingly spend much of their time online, an opportunity to explore outdoors, ...
Fortlandia wrapping up at the Wildflower Center
January 10, 2022 With Fortlandia ending soon at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, my daughter and I popped over last week to check out the annual installation of creative, nature-themed, designer-made forts. This year at least one of the forts is also lit up at night as part of ...
Trolls, grasses, and a storybook children’s garden at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
November 03, 2021 We traveled north in early October to enjoy fall foliage in New Hampshire, stopping first in Maine for a couple of days. A garden on my must-see list: Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, a 300-acre public garden in Boothbay. Here’s part 2 of my visit; click here for ...
Betty Ford Alpine Gardens grows high in the Rockies
August 05, 2021 At 8,200 feet above sea level, Betty Ford Alpine Gardens in Vail, Colorado, claims bragging rights as the highest botanical garden in North America. It’s named, of course, in honor of the former first lady, who along with her husband, former President Gerald Ford, was a beloved ...
Exploring the Children’s Garden: Missouri Botanical Garden, part 5
June 30, 2021 After being closed for a year due to the pandemic, the Doris I. Schnuck Children’s Garden had recently reopened when I visited Missouri Botanical Garden earlier this month, and the kids were clearly loving it. The splash pad was the hot spot, with water jets popping up ...
Early spring blooms and Athena the owl at Wildflower Center
March 20, 2021 When they’re offered, I take advantage of late-admission hours to gardens. The light is better for photography in the early evening, and you have a better chance of seeing wildlife. On Thursday our local native-plant botanical garden, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, stayed open late, and ...
Origami sculpture in the Culinary and Adventure gardens at San Antonio Botanical Garden
December 10, 2020 Part 3 of my recent visit to San Antonio Botanical Garden to see the Origami in the Garden exhibition by Santa Fe artist Kevin Box takes us through the relatively new Culinary and Family Adventure gardens. Two festive Christmas trees greeted me just inside the entrance. Zachry ...
