Matthaei Botanical Gardens

~While in Ann Arbor, Michigan, I visited the amazing Matthaei Botanical Gardens. The Gardens are affiliated with the University of Michigan and are northeast of downtown Ann Arbor, at 1800 N. Dixboro Road. If you're in the area they are well worth visiting.

Here are some pictures that I took while I was there:

Entrance to the gardens

An herb garden, very fragrant.

An interesting monument.

This insect was very busy going from flower to flower.

Next to the main garden is the Gaffield Children's Garden, with kid-friendly activities, mazes, and so forth. Above is a wooden sculpture just inside the garden.

A little cabin in the Children's Garden.

Delphinium.

There was also an Eastern-themed area with a large collection of bonsai plants.

 

Closeup of the figures at the bottom of the previous picture. Two monks enjoying some tea, perhaps?

Also in the Botanical Gardens is a large greenhouse conservatory filled with warm-climate plants. Here in the back is the cactus collection.

As I went towards the front of the conservatory, the exhibits moved to tropical plants. Here in the center are Mediterranean-climate plants.

In the middle of the conservatory.

An interesting sculpture called 'Kaleidoscope', around a plant.

Banyan tree, native to India.

This bizarre-looking tree from Africa (Kigelia africana) is called a "Sausage Tree" or "Cucumber Tree" because of its large hanging fruit.

"Lobster Claw" flowering plant.

View from the front of the conservatory, showing the tropical exhibits.

Apart from thel gardens and the conservatory, the Matthaei Botanical Gardens also include miles of forest trails. This bridge leads across a stream to one of the trails.

A beautiful metallic bronze-colored damselfly. Getting a good picture of this creature was difficult and I took dozens of bad pictures before I snapped this one, since they will quickly fly away if you get too close. Like their cousins, the dragonflies, damselflies are considered to be highly beneficial insects because they eat mosquitos, mosquito larvae, gnats, and other pest insects.

Another damselfly, this one bright metallic viridian-colored.

Along one of the trails there is a labyrinth. Sadly, it lacked a minotaur. Unlike a maze, a labyrinth (this one modeled after Baltic labyrinths from the Middle Ages) are not made to be 'solved'; there's only one path, and it always leads into and out of the center. The idea is to walk the path as a means of contemplation and relaxation. "You go into a maze to lose yourself, and a labyrinth to find yourself."

Dominion GardenFest of Lights 2013

~The Christmas Season is upon us, and lights and decorations are everywhere.  While in Richmond, VA last week, I walked though some amazing lights and decorations at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden.  The display is called Dominion GardenFest of Lights 2013.

The courtyard garden in front of the arboretum (the building in the background) was colorfully lit up, including this fountain.

The fountain, seen from another angle.

Inside the arboretum looking up at the glass dome high above.  There are a wide variety of plants from many different climates inside of this building.

This pool in the arboretum had been decorated with colorful flowers and animal statues.  See the frog sitting in the middle?

It's hard to tell from this picture, but the scale of this ornately-decorated tree is colossal -- it was at least 25 feet tall.  The name of the display is "Birds and the Bees" (seen on the banner at lower left) -- if you click on the picture for a closer look, you can see the many bird- and bee-themed ornaments that almost entirely cover the surface of the tree.

Another fountain in the courtyard.  The water on this one had been turned off and replaced with blue lights.

This small courtyard was covered by netting that held star-shaped lights.

This walkway was decorated to look like a caterpillar...you had to walk into its mouth to proceed further into the garden.

The benches in the garden are cleverly decorated as animals, insects, and in this case, trees.

These trees were strung with colorful lights.

This small house had animatronic Christmas decorations!

This picture was taken from an elevated walkway, and shows how extensively lit the garden was; this is only a small portion of the GardenFest display. It reminded me of a scene in the film National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation when the Griswold family turns on their massive Christmas display for the first time, consuming so much electricity that engineers at the power plant are forced to activate a backup nuclear reactor.

A wire-frame peacock. How ostentatious!

A butterfly.

I'm not lyin' to you, this is a lion display.

The entrance to a Japanese tea house garden, located on the grounds of the botanical garden.

A stone lantern in the tea house garden. I like the way the lighting came out on this picture.

If you're in the Richmond area, the GardenFest is well worth a visit. Tickets are $11 for adults, $7 for kids (3 and under are free), and it runs through January 13 (closed Dec 24 &25).  There is also a list of activities that take place there on some nights.  The address is 1800 Lakeside Avenue, Richmond, VA 23228.