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 ...
Fall garden stroll at the Wildflower Center
November 18, 2024 Being able to visit a garden at the golden hour — just after sunrise or before sunset, when the light is soft and warm — is a garden photographer’s fervent wish. So I am grateful when a botanical garden offers early or late visiting hours. Austin’s Lady ...
After the corn maze at Chatfield Farms
October 26, 2024 A cornfield maze tempted us, right after arriving in Colorado, to trek out to Chatfield Farms, a native plant refuge and working farm that’s part of Denver Botanic Gardens. It was the end of September, and fall was in the air. After the corn maze (fun for ...
Heronswood’s shady woodland and tribe-influenced Renaissance Garden
August 22, 2024 The colorful house garden and potager stole most of my attention at Heronswood during last month’s Puget Sound Fling. Click for that post and the garden’s tumultuous backstory. Today I’m sharing other parts of Heronswood, starting with the woodland garden. Woodland garden One of the best features ...
Heronswood pilgrimage: House garden and formal garden
August 20, 2024 Two acclaimed gardens made by plantsman, plant explorer, and author Dan Hinkley (and his partner, Robert Jones) were two of the biggest attractions at the Puget Sound Fling in July. While I’d read about Windcliff and Heronswood, I’d never visited either. Day 3 of the Fling was ...
Pre-dinner stroll around Lakewold Gardens in Puget Sound
August 13, 2024 Day 2 of the Puget Sound Fling last month ended at Lakewold Gardens, a 10-acre estate garden in Lakewood, Washington. The Fling banquet dinner was to be held on the terrace, but first we had time to explore the grounds. A brass quartet, including co-planner Camille Paulsen‘s ...
Amid the trees at Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden and Pacific Bonsai Museum
August 06, 2024 The Puget Sound Fling last month started its second full day of touring in a forest of towering trees. Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden At the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden in Federal Way, Washington, I sought out the Victorian Stumpery, “the world’s largest public stumpery, with ferns spilling ...
Fantastical rockwork and koi pond at Japanese Tea Garden in San Antonio
May 07, 2024 While hunting for faux bois works throughout San Antonio last month, I couldn’t miss the chance to visit the Japanese Tea Garden in Brackenridge Park. I was last there 11 years ago, and I was eager to see its distinctive rock architecture again. A torii gate of ...
Early March visit to Mercer Botanic Gardens in Humble
March 12, 2024 Two weekends ago, during a trip to Houston to see family and friends, I made a morning visit to Mercer Botanic Gardens in the northern suburb of Humble. The gardens were just waking up for spring, and I enjoyed a leisurely stroll along garden paths and trails ...
Winter beauty at the Wildflower Center
January 30, 2024 It’s possumhaw berry season in Austin. The crimson berries of this deciduous native holly (Ilex decidua) are blazing at the edge of woodlands and in sunny gardens all over town, including at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. This one in particular wowed me last Saturday. I ...
Last chance to play at Fortlandia at Wildflower Center
January 28, 2024 Once a year, designers submit creative fort designs to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. The winning forts become part of the garden’s annual Fortlandia event. For a few months, kids get to play on them — climbing, leaping, crawling, lounging, and chasing through them. I always ...
Cutting Garden and Fling Party at Chanticleer
January 24, 2024 Last September, the Philadelphia Area Fling took me to Pennsylvania, where I enjoyed two visits to the incomparable Chanticleer. I spent a full day there before the tour began and returned for the official afternoon visit, which ended with dinner, live music, and dancing in the garden ...
Ringing Bell’s Woodland at Chanticleer Garden
January 18, 2024 The most secret part of Chanticleer is the entrance to Bell’s Woodland, set off beyond the colorful cutting garden (coming up in my next post). The plant list for it is tucked inside a metal sculpture of a hornet’s nest hanging from a tree — worthy of ...
Falling into ruin at Chanticleer Garden
January 13, 2024 Chanticleer’s Ruin Garden has a fairy tale quality. It’s not an actual ruin but was built in 1999 on the site of one of the original houses on the property. Plants creep up crumbling walls and emerge from cracked paving, ghostly faces appear in pools of water, ...
Rocking a dry garden at Chanticleer’s Gravel Garden
January 09, 2024 Every time I visit Chanticleer’s Gravel Garden, I get a familiar feeling. Many plants we grow in Central Texas appear in this Pennsylvania dry garden, and it’s fun to see them in a new context. Although the garden bristles with yuccas, agaves, and cactus and sways with ...
Wading into Chanticleer’s Pond Garden
January 05, 2024 The Pond Garden at Chanticleer draws visitors like a magnet. Water features always do. Five ponds surrounded by blousy gardens are found at the bottom of the long hillside that begins at the garden’s entrance. This is Part 6 of my visit to Chanticleer during the Philadelphia ...
