Ahhh, Springtime

Started off with some flooding,




but soon bloomed into seas of dandilions (which Coryn insists he must pick every one he can because they are weeds, which by definition require picking)




it's quite gorgeous in the forests around here....

June at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens

With the help of some adventurous fellow CLC3 attendees we found out about the gardens in Richmond, and were able to go several times during the summer before we left for colder pastures. This year they had a special art exhibit in conjunction with the garden, a glass sculpture by the name of Hans Godo Frabel had quite a variety of works on display, starting with this cube.
There were also several really well done renditions of flowers, from orchids to this pitcher plant as well as some more on the fantastical side that reminded me a good deal of Georgia O'Keeffe.



There were several pure whimsey as well, figures dancing, stick figures on a bicycle, and these jesters on balls in the water who Coryn decided were "playing beach ball".


They have a fantastic kids area, with learning gardens, art area, water play, sand area, picnic tables, and even a tree they have designated for climbing. Coryn made a garden with the spoons and shovels...

Carter buried some dinosaurs.

Tropical Dream Center 6: Victoria Greenhouse

Then there's this stand alone greenhouse, when you first go in its an aquarium of I want to say Amazonian fish? A few huge fish, one a catfish.

Then you go upstairs to find the greenhouse, lots of cute pitcher-type plants...

Other non-Okinawan plants...

giant water lilies... all in a greenhouse that is actually hotter than the others, certainly hotter than it was outside that day, it was a gorgeous day!
At the end of the greenhouse is a random banyon, I'm assuming was cultivated to hang in the middle of the path as a single twined hanging for photo ops. The Japanese are as big on photo ops as Disney!

Tropical Dream Center 5: Panel Exhibition

I was in luck and happened to go to the center while they had a panel exhibit about the wild orchids of Okinawa - finding them in the wild... which was less about how to find them and more about pictures of them in the wild. Which makes sense, wouldn't want every Tom Dick and Harry running up to these places and pulling them out to take home. It was nice though, there were explanations for the Japanese names.

Being a panel exhibit, it didn't photograph too well, which is sad because by this point Coryn was bored to tears, though Carter was asleep for most half of the center.

Here's the other half decent pic.

Then we found ourself in the observatory, the spiral looking building that any who haven't been yet assume is the center itself. Its not much though, the interior is a tribute to the people who study and film nature along with a display about growing orchids from seeds.
the view at the top is lovely of course.

Tropical Dream Center 4: Karasawa Library

Not sure who Karasawa is, at least in relation to the center, but he's obviously a botanist of some kind. There is an entire room full of orchids that I'm sure are related to him somehow, though if its ones he's named, bred, drawn, grown, I don't know.

He must publish or at least add to books that have been published, some with pictures, some drawn, and one that looks like it might have been written for children with fairies on the orchids!

Most of the ones in this 'library' are unusual looking.
This might be my favorite...

But they are all quite beautiful.

Tropical Dream Center 3: Fruit and Water

They also have Cacao trees...

Wax apple... and durian to name a few more.

Japanese like to make stamp hunts for the kids in the historical/educational sites to keep them entertained, and it works! Coryn was always hunting for the next stamp on his giant sheet of paper. 15 stamps in all.
Water being an important aspect to life in general, and tropical plants in particular, there are a few areas of water in the center, one of which has koi you can feed with edibly boxed feed (looks like some of their icecream sandwiches)

Lily ponds of course...

Tropical Dream Center 2: Fruit Tree Greenhouse

Cucumber Tree

Flowers from the Box Fruit Tree hanging over the path.Box Fruit

Jack Fruit

Mmm... Mango... You Wanta Da Mango... yes, they bag their mangos before they fall off the tree, no need for constant vigil to catch them at peak ripeness :)

Tropical Dream Center

So, we continued our trip to the Expo Park with the Tropical Dream Center... here is the entrance, yes, thats Coryn running ahead

The walking path towards the first greenhouse gives a nice view if the dream center itself. There are five different greenhouses, the first three of which are dedicated to orchids.

Though they aren't exclusively orchids, I think... I haven't looked up this cobra plant yet, it might be.

orchids with such finely bisected petals to look fuzzy....

and well, lots of orchids. I was unfortunately too late to see the vanilla in bloom, but there was plenty to keep me occupied even without an international orchid festival going on. and, it was very much so not busy... I highly recommend walking through when visiting the aquarium.

Spring Break! (pt. 2)

On the 8th we took another tour, this time to the butterfly park and Neo Park which is a research center for international species conservation. I forgot to check the battery on my camera so I didn't get too many shots, but I plan on going back with Jackson sometime. It was rainy this morning as well, but finished by the time we got there.

First stop was the butterfly park. These two pictures sum it up... slight apprehension from Coryn,

grabby grabby from Carter.

Then it was on to Neo Park The first thing you see when you walk in the main entrance is this bird extravaganza, flamingos and whatever else you see in the back there... you can buy food for them, they're very tame, and they scared a little girl who was holding a bag of food but was too scared to give the food to the birds. They have lots of fun animals there, giant Amazon River fish, lemurs, llamas, and a petting zoo comprised mostly of... pets. Dogs, hampsters, rabbits, pigs. But we had to practically run through it because we only got an hour there!

They also have some great plants, a giant tree that looks like a mix between a banana tree and a fan palm from Madagascar called Traveler's Palm but its actually in the same family as Bird of Paradise which explains why the flowers look like a white version of the Bird of Paradise. This blue flower is the one we were supposed to look for at the Botanical Gardens, its a Jade Vine.

Spring Break!

Ok, so it wasn't for us, but it did throw me off all week seeing the school kids every day. I see this face fairly often from Carter these days. His "I want to play with that!" face.

On the 6th we went to the Botanical Gardens (again, yes) on a tour to pick potatoes... I dressed Carter appropriately except for galoshes, I need to get some for him! The lady who was giving the tour took photos and was nice enough to send me them.

Coryn had a ton of fun, really liked being a farmer and found the tiniest potatoes! We went with red potatoes since I like them and know a good recipe (thanks mom!) but they had white and even black potatoes up for grabs.

I had been raining some the day before and that morning so it was nice and squishy orange mud, you can't really tell how orange in the pictures. This was kind of funny to me since I grew up in Idaho and this was the first time I ever harvested potatoes... Japan of all places, and not the sweet kind. :)

Of course, after the potato picking and clothes changing, we had some free time to spend wandering the gardens, had to feed the fish again, and we were supposed to go look at a special flower that was just about to finish blooming but we didn't get there (check out the next post). We opted for feeding the goats and finding flower hats instead. This giant yellow flower grows on a tree and is almost done blooming too.