Monday, June 06, 2005
A Visit to Shaw Gardens
We were on a 'Bright Family Tour' to St. Louis for a nephew's graduation. Being away from my garden doesn't mean though, that I can't see someone else's garden: in this case, while the womenfolk were decorating for the party, I drove to Tower Park, nice and early, for a tour of Shaw Botanical Gardens, especially enjoying the woodland garden (it was a hot day), and the Japanese garden. The latter was a sobering experience, seeing how the cute little Japanese maples I've been buying in one gallon pots are someday going to be the size of a two car garage. Gulp! Someday I'm going to have an arboretum, not a shady flower garden. It was also amazing seeing all the relatively tender plants they can grow, that I can only dream about. People did look at me a little strange when every ten feet down the path I went, "Oh jeez, they've got one of those, too!" However, I've thought from time to time about taking a crack at growing a sacred lily (Rhodea) in my garden, but after seeing how ratty the foliage looked even in St. Louis, I know they aren't worth growing in Iowa. Two additional observations from touring the garden: the founder, Henry Shaw is buried in a mausoleum in a little grove of trees, and I'll bet it's a spooky spot at night, and secondly, seeing a botanical garden from a motorized "train", as many of the visitors did, looks really dumb. Anyway, after a four hour walk under the hot sun, I was ready to sample some cold beer and a brat on the riverfront and puzzle over how I'm going to fit anything else in my garden.
// posted by IBOY @ 1:44 PM 
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I dunno, Speechless... I didn't see any plaque giving info on them, but I did notice another statue of a heron that I know is a copy, so I guess they bought their statuary at Lowes or something.
Don
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Don
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