Ft Worth Botanic Garden on Mothers Day...

As some of my older readers know, my Mother passed away last September... so I have to say I wasn't looking forward to my first Mothers Day without her.

Don't get me wrong... I'm past the grief stricken part, but the thing about Mother's day is that there are quite a few of us out there who don't really have a mom around to celebrate with. Let's face it folks... there's not a lot of guidelines for the people who are outside the box. I mean, what exactly am I supposed to do? There's no tradition that I know of... so for some reason I decided that I'd celebrate Mothers day with Mother Earth...

Anyway, after church I drove a few miles and went to the Ft. Worth Botanic Garden. The rose gardens are in full bloom right now, and they were getting a lot of attention from family outings today. Not to mention a few photographers and young ladies in wedding dresses... I steered clear of them. Don't get me wrong... Roses are great. I've just seen them before. Today I went into parts of the Gardens that I don't normally...

The FWBG has a very natural garden plan. Much of it looks about as much like untamed woods as a planned garden can, and consequently it also has a lot of wildlife... all the way up to coyotes that tend to stay hidden all day but come out at night I'm told. I started my day in these "untamed" areas... and right off, I found a 4 leaf clover in a patch of white clover by the pond.

Actually, 5 minutes of poking around yielded 3 four leaf clovers... not bad huh? I've got them pressing in a novel I had in the truck...

I also saw a heron stalking through the pools...

But he'd better watch his step. There are snapping turtles lurking under the surface...

As naturalistic as the plan is... it is a botanic garden, and there are some water Iris planted around...

After about an hour of wandering around and snapping pics in a very distracted sort of way... I walked over to the Conservatory.

Now, the conservatory of the FWBG is a rather overgrown and overblown place... It's actually rather small, but they've got a lot of plants kind of crammed together in there. I've never been particularly fond of it... primarily because I always get the urge to attack it with pruning sheers. Spent leaves are always underfoot, and branches and vines are always threatening to strangle you... but that artificial wildness appealed to me today so I paid my one dollar entrance fee and wandered in.

This first plant I know because Mr. Subjunctive talked about it on his blog... but I'm sure that his looks nothing like this... it's a Screw Pine, altogether about 18 feet tall, and complete with arial roots that look like they may become weapons...

The next is a tropical pitcher plant. Nepenthes of some sort... it wasn't tagged though... (don't you just HATE that...)

the nest two pics are a hanging fringed hibiscus...

in the second pic you can see a huge NOID bromiliad of some sort that the plant is draping itself over...

and here's the path through the conservatory, past the banana trees...

And this is the humungousest (is that a real word) corn plant draceana that I've ever seen or ever hope to. About 25 feet tall... which would be really really cool if I was fonder of draceana...

and this is a chenile plant that is hanging it's fuzzy flowers over the path right at my face level... you have to duck to get past these...

And this was going haywire... the plant clump is huge and there were at least 2 dozen of the blooms going...

And that's how I spent the better part of my afternoon.

Really, replacing Mothers Day with Mother Earth day worked for me. I came out of it not quite as moody as I went in, and trust me, that's a good thing...

As for any of you out there who do have a Mom to celebrate with... treasure every moment.

And for all my readers who are Moms... have a great and blessed day...

The rose pavillion...

Back to the Fort Worth Botanic Garden...

This time the rose garden... I've lost my little piece of paper where I wrote down all the names of all the varieties... so I'm having to depend on my memory here. I have no idea what this ones called...

This is the view looking down the hill from the rose pavillion. The pavilion was built in 1930 or 1931, and was the first public works project built by the government during the great depression... it's really a great little building, and the waterfalls go down the center of the rose beds. The beds are filled with Knockout, Pink Knockout and Blushing Knockout... which aren't my faves... they're semi-double blooms on bushes that are often used as hedges... nice enough though. When you stand in the pavilion, the breeze comes up the hill and you get the best scent from all the roses coming up to you...

After you get to the bottom of the hill, there are beds to the right, and even more extensive beds to the left...

This is a climber named Carnea... an antique rose that was introduced in 1804 or 1805... I was really impressed with it, so I remembered it...

This is one of the squirels... they're very tame in the Gardens, if you have something they want, they'll come right up to you and take it out of your hands... This guy was wondering if I was gonna cough up a cookie, no doubt...

This one I remember because I loved the color... Cinco de Mayo... the colors are just as festive as the name implies!

This is from the bottom of the garden looking up the hill...

And this final pic is the only hybrid tea rose I have here in my yard... Someone gave this rose bush to my mom as a gift, and then she gave it to me... so, here's Blue Girl... even though I think it's more lavender than anything else... pardon the dried edges to the petals... she's in a very exposed area and I think the wind dried her out some...


Hoping you all have a great day!