San Antonio Botanical Garden

Our third Keto Con trip!  We went a few days early and visited San Antonio.  They have a beautiful botanical garden.  I loved these little vignettes of home landscapes:

Cottage Garden

 Texas Homestead (I didn't catch the name of this one, but it looks Texas!)

Spanish Courtyard 

A lawn of English ivy.

They also featured lots of plants that I've never seen growing before.  And while they aren't in their natural habitat, it was fun seeing these:

Avocado

Cashew

Coffee.  I've always wanted to see coffee growing!

Macadamia

Pineapple

 

And somehow I lost track of the shot of the olive trees!

 

 

 

Tucson Botanical Gardens

 Even though it's February, gardeners in Tucson are already planting their container gardens.  The weather was perfect in the upper 70s low 80s.  Thank you to Mrs. Porter who started a beautiful back yard garden that evolved into the Tucson Botanical Garden.  I loved all the benches, so many that were in memory of gardeners.

The iris were blooming and there were lots of violets.  It's always so surprising  to see such familiar plants in far-away  locations that are so different from our own.    I love irises and theirs looked so happy.  Some were blooming already!  I suppose they have the best of both worlds in this garden--irrigation to quench their thirst but also the dry conditions of the desert so they don't rot.  Not one damaged corm in the bunch.  Was that because iris borers don't like the desert?  Or because the caretakers take such good care?  And the violets--well, I have a love-hate relationship with them.  They always look so much prettier in someone else's garden :)

Chihuly in Arizona

Before I got my new knees (ten years ago!), there was a Chihuly glass exhibit at the botanical garden in St. Louis.  I wanted to go so badly, but we never did.  I just didn't want to hobble in pain, even for Chihuly.  

Last week we visited the botanical garden in Phoenix.  And YaY! Chihuly was there! 

I loved this shot--everybody everywhere was taking pictures--either with a fancy camera or with their cell phones. . .

Gorgeous.  And then we learned there were night time hours when the pieces were illuminated.  So we went back again to see. 

 More to follow . . .