Rambling with Russ: Gardens

GARDENS

This blog focuses on trip journals & photos. But some venues offer photo ops that cut across trips. In particular, 3 stand out: gardens, churches & other religious sites, and cemeteries. Here are photos from some favorite gardens & flowering locales.

Marjorie’s gardens

My most favorite (and most frequent) garden photo ops come courtesy of the resident gardener. There were humble beginnings at our first house, when fertile earth had to be created in space that had been an above-ground pool. With assistance from some helpers, that turned out well.

After moving to our current house, there was more work to do, fertilizing the clay soil, constructing "rooms" to separate sections, and the usual resurrection work every spring.

With grandsons to help

and I've pitched in, too.

Beauty in the spring,

though sometimes with some snow,

summer,

and fall.

And even winter (no, we don't grow wine, the bottles are for decoration).

The 2020 pandemic gave Marjorie a lot of gardening time to get things in good shape in the Spring.

St. Francis approves

as does The Lady of the Garden.

Tulips, a specialty in Albany, are well-represented,

and many other varieties

including "bird's nest" fungi

and even what seems an alien invasion.

There are also plenty of critter photo ops.

Veggies, too: her "heirloom" rhubarb transplanted from Wisconsin, tomatoes & beans,

and resident bunnies who think the garden is their salad bar.

Other local gardens

Marjorie's is not the only garden in town, of course. Albany's Washington Park has a beautiful annual Tulip Festival surrounding the Moses statue to celebrate its Dutch heritage.

So many varieties!

Plus flowering trees.

Ten Broeck Mansion also has lovely flowers at tulip time.

Loudonville's Pruyn House has a beautifully cultivated garden from early spring thruout the summer in the midst of historic buildings.

In 2024 my photo in the gardens won a photo contest.

Marjorie has organized and taught in a Colonie Art League summer art camp for children.

In 2022 we did a tour of some other local gardens,

with lots of butterflies.

The NYS Museum adds in its own annual spring "New York in Bloom" exhibition, with sometimes whimsical floral displays thruout the museum.

My UAlbany "work home" has also kicked in some spring photo ops.

Ten Broeck Mansion in the city has some lovely plantings.

New York Botanical Garden

We've done a number of trips down to the NY Botanical Garden in the Bronx. They have especially wonderful seasonal displays. Spring brings the Orchid Show.

and a pretty pond by the conservatory.

There's a mum festival in the fall

with bonsai & other seasonal displays

and the Children's Garden all decked out for Halloween.

Christmas season has a model train running thru the conservatory.

In 2006 Chihuly glass sculptures were arranged thruout the gardens

and again in 2017.

Other NYS gardens

We've wandered a bit thru Central Park in NYC

Old Westbury Gardens on Long Island

Saratoga's Congress Park w/ its "Spit and Spat" sculptures

and Schoharie's mum festival.

A Fall trip to Cold Spring brought us to Stonecrop Gardens.

New England gardens

We've made several visits to Longwood Gardens in PA (OK, technically not New England, but close enough to include here). A nice mix of formal & less formal gardens.

A visit in 2018 included a Festival of Fountains,

an automated organ concert,

and more time in the gardens (both inside and outside)

and along the lovely walkways.

And while in nearby Bucks County we stopped at Paxson Hill Farm Nursery and Gardens, with nice walk-through gardens

and pretty peacocks.

We've stayed in several B&Bs surrounded by lovely plantings.

A lovely stroll in Holyoke MA.

Green Animals topiary in RI.

Pretty gardens in Portsmouth NH.

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens

Tower Hill Botanic Garden near Worcester MA

Naumkeag, in Stockbridge MA, has a Daffodil and Tulip Festival.

Southeast

Trips to Florida have taken us to Cypress Gardens, Palma Sola Botanical Garden in Bradenton,

Myakka State Park & Ringling Estate in Sarasota

Sarasota's Marie Selby Botanical Gardens

including Tiffany glass structures one year

and Naples Botanical Garden, other spot nearby

Plantations outside of Charleston SC.

Savannah GA

Norfolk Botanical Garden

Monticello

Midwest

Visits with Doug & Ann in Midland MI have brought us to beautiful Dow Gardens

and nearby Canopy Walk through & above the forest,

Dahlia Hill is quite stunning.

West & Southwest

Tho not technically a "garden," Pasadena's Rose Parade provides a fabulous floral display,

including opportunities to view the floats up close afterward.

Arizona & New Mexico offer quite different views.

And San Francisco's Golden Gate Park is lovely in the fall.

Our travels in the Pacific Northwest have included the Portland Rose Garden

and the Oregon Garden near Salem.

International Peace Gardens in Salt Lake City

and a pretty nursery in Lake Tahoe NV

Canada

Canada has plenty of pretty flowers, too, including Butchart Gardens near Victoria,

Vancouver's Stanley Park & Queen Elizabeth Park have spectacular vistas,

plus plantings & sculptures along the harbor.

Calgary offers the city-center Devonian Gardens.

We've enjoyed 2 visits to see Chinese lanterns spread thru Montreal's Botanical Garden.

Islands

Island vacations have included lovely gardens in Bermuda

and different vegetation in Hawaii.

We enjoyed lovely gardens Tahiti returning from a trip to Australia & New Zealand: in a park along the coast outside Papeete and on an excursion around the island.