Part 3: Visiting the Chicago Botanic Garden in Late October

Today we will finish our virtual visit to the Chicago Botanic Gardens with a stop in the Japanese Garden. I have never before seen a Japanese garden and was enthralled with the serene beauty of it all.

It is a paradise for all to see and enjoy. The evergreen trees are pruned in a style called 'cloud pruning'. It is a horizontal type of pruning that completely changes the way an evergreen looks.

The migrating Canada Geese also enjoyed the garden. Some of the islands (and I believe this was one of them) are off limits to visitors. These two islands are only for visiting birds. How nice is that? The birds are left undisturbed to stop for a bit on their migration paths and the visitors to the gardens can enjoy them from afar such as what I was able to do. It's a good thing my camera has a great zoom to capture these birds as they were a long way away.

Okay, we leave the Japanese garden and wander on the nicely paved paths. I am for some reason fascinated with the pointy evergreens. I think it is because I like that wow factor. Sometimes gardens can get boring so when you put in a sky scraping pointy evergreen that is not too overwhelming but which raises the bar a bit the garden gets exciting!

This area is the Dwarf Conifer Garden. Our guide (we rode a tram and since we were the only ones aboard we got a good overview of the gardens) told us that many visitors were not utilizing this giant staircase to go up into the conifer garden. The garden staff decided the solution was to plant some conifers in the staircase by taking out some rocks and creating planting pockets. The hope is that people will be more apt to climb the stairs.

The Rose Garden was splendid! It is the best I've seen. The roses were all massed nicely and looked extremely healthy. Mr. Fix-it and I endeavored to smell quite a few of the blooms. Many of the hybrid teas had no scent but we found one that was a true rose smell. The name of it was 'Tiffany' and it was a lovely pink rose.

This is not 'Tiffany' but I wanted to show a shot with both rose hips and blooms in the picture. The rose hips and blooms made for an interesting rose bush and was yet another reminder we visited at the end of the garden season.

We will finish our visit to the Chicago Botanic Garden in the Heritage Garden. I was most curious about this huge and rather intimidating yet beautiful bronze sculpture. Can you guess who it is? It is a sculpture of Carl Linnaeus. Linnaeus is the father of binomial nomenclature-the naming system we use to name all of our plants. He is a very important man in horticultural history and no self respecting gardener would not know his name-though they might not know how handsome he was! Maybe it was just the sculpture:) This garden pays tribute to the world's botanical gardens. Around Linnaeus is a wild and jumbled disorder of plants (figuratively more than literally) and as you spread out from this sculpture the plants are organized by country of origin. I loved looking at each and every one of the countries and where all the plants came from. For instance, I knew that Hydrangea arborescens and Hydrangea quercifolia were both native to the United States. I also knew that Hydrangea paniculata was not but I never gave it any thought about where this hydrangea came from. It comes from....Asia!


My favorite plant in the Heritage Garden at this time of the year had to be a cool milkweed called Gomphocarpus fructicosus, aka Milkweed. This milkweed is not native to the United States though. It is native to South America. The pods were the coolest pods ever.


And lastly my traveling partner. Not only is he my best friend, and husband of many years, but he is a partner in the truest sense of the word. We are equals and enjoy being together so very much. Our children are all grown up and this was the first weekend away for just the two of us. We had a super wonderful time on our weekend in Chicago just doing our thing and not rushing here and there and trying to see everything. Sometimes travelers just need to slow down and enjoy the journey. I am very grateful we were able to do this on our weekend away....

in the garden....

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Farewell my Pretties

BY SKEETER

My GEORGIA GARDENS are showing Fall Color as a backdrop for my fading plants.

Another view with the Forsythia Bush showing color and Elephant Ears still hanging on. I do not recall the Forsythia Bush ever being so pretty in fall. 

The Bald Cypress tree to the left is turning a bronze (dead looking) color while the Dogwoods are giving me the Red colors I desire in Fall. Crepe Myrtles give the Orange colors you see. The Angel Trumpets are dropping their last blooms and leaves to the ground.

But there is still life in my Gardens such as this Eastern Phoebe at the Birdbath.

And this Mocking Bird hiding in the Butterfly Bushes.

I went out to the Butterfly Bush Island the week of Halloween to find many visitors fluttering about. The Long-tailed Skipper is shaped like a bird don't ya think?

I love the shade of blue on its back. There were a lot of Long-tailed Skippers enjoying a meal.

Underside of a Painted Lady.

Top side of this pretty Lady (or is it another one) There were many of them spotted as that day.

Several Monarchs were enjoying a sip of nectar before their continued long journey south.

The ever so popular (to my gardens) Gulf Fritillary's were busy.

Here is the top side to a Gulf.

I spotted two Buckeyes on this day.

I am going to take a guess and say this to be an Appalachian Eyed Brown. Maybe, maybe not. It was sunning itself on the grass.

I rarely bring any of my flowers inside the house due to these two little fur balls. They like to nibble and that is not always good when some things are toxic.

But I just had to clip some of these blooms to bring inside before nature took them away from me. Oct. 29 and iris still blooming! I put the flowers up high when we left the room. Today, they are still pretty for me. Yes, they were fresh when clipped.

Of course the ever hardy Butterfly Bushes continue to bloom and will, up until our first frost. But other then those, the main colors we have glowing for now are the Coleus in many varieties.

As this one matures, it becomes a washed out color but still pretty to my eyes.

This one grew slim but tall and is bursting with colors as well. coleus sometime return in my gardens as we have mild winters. I hope all the above beauties return as they are such assets to the garden when other color fails, they shine.

 

Today, 7 baby deer went to the birdbath outside my window for a sip. Yep, we are still in a drought. It was a nice sight to see all of them at once on their own without a mommy near by. Two are little boy's as I spotted their little button antlers. Aw, they are so cute. I am allowing the deer to eat as they please in the garden for now. Things are going dormant for winter anyway, so why Not, I say. I shall get the stinky spray out for the evergreen items though. Fall is a bittersweet time of year for me. I enjoy all the lower temps in the air but do not like the idea of saying FAREWELL TO MY PRETTIES, In the Garden...

 

I am also going to be saying Farewell to my blogging friends for the year!  I will pop back in to wish you all wonderful holidays but other then that, I do not plan to write any more blogs for the remainder of the year. I shall see ya in the New Year though.... 

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden