Agggghhhh!

I don't think I can take one more grey day. Luckily Marilyn emailed me some photos her husband took in the butterfly house and the rainforest conservatory. That and that alone stopped me from totally losing it. Whew! Crisis averted.

Here is our stripey bamboo that is so contemporary looking.

And our picture perfect bananas.

Losbsta' claw

and finally the bird of pardise.

Ahh... That is much better.

The Weather

Brrrrrr. Brrrrrrr. Brrrrrrr. I think I'm going to live in the Butterfly House until June. I'm happy for the sunshine though. I'm not complaining about that at all. I'm waiting for the usual February warm up teaser. Oh. Wait. We already had that a couple of weeks ago. One good thing about the frigid weather keeping me inside is that I'm getting a lot of planning done.

The Children's Secret Garden group has been working on a plan for this year. Our children's garden has been an aggravation to me for the last couple of years so I'm super thrilled with the plans we have for this year. Our mantra has been "No red tomatoes!" Plus, we are doing a big blitz with the annuals.  And containers. I'm not so good with those but luckily I'm not the only one on the committee. We'll be removing some things. I think we might even bring the turtles out of the greenhouse and let them have a little summer vacation. I think they'll like that.

Butterfly House

I'm doing my work in the Butterfly House this afternoon. It is so nice in here. There are a couple of butterflies roaming around. The jasmine is blooming so it smells really good. The humidity is at 80% so my skin is happy.

Oh look the butterflies are playing. Yeah, right. I used to think that too. Now that I know our little lepidoptera a bit better I now know that they are not playing but waging war. They are pugnacious little critters, very teritorial.

I know I'm spoiled rotten because I get to hang out in the butterfly house. Don't get too jealous though because you, yes you, could have this job too. I'm looking for some fine folks who like to spend time in our Butterfly House.

As you have just discovered our butterflies are a little rowdy and they need some babysitting. So if you are interested in hanging out in the most beautiful spot in Grand Junction let me know. Email me at wcbgoperations@bresnan.net or call me at 245-3288, ext. 3. But I'm warning you. I'm learning from the butterflies. You might have to fight me for a spot on the bench. ;)

Ketchup

Ketchup on my blog, yes. On my french fries, no. I prefer mayo.

I owe you all a couple of posts. OK. OK. I owe you more than a couple but it is a start and here they are. Enjoy!

Thigmo-What???

As you can see by looking at the right side of this blog, I don't link to a lot of other sites. There are more blogs and websites thasn one person will ever be able to slog through. So when I link I try to find a good reason for linking.

It is a no brainer why I link to CSU. We luv them. The Garden Rant crew is definitely fun and informative and their guest bloggers are fabulous! The Human Flower Project caught my fancy for their in depth posts that really reflect the "human-ness" that plants bring out in  us. World Changing is my dose of theory, intellect and grass roots action.

Today I am adding a new link. Drum roll please. It is to the Garden Professors.

How many of you were at Landscapes West a couple of years ago. That's right, raise your hands. You. In the back. Is your hand up or are you just scratching your head? Let's see, one, two... That many? Remember Jeff Gilman, the mythbuster of the plant world? Well, he's teamed up with a couple of other brainy folks and they've put together a blog where you can read all sorts of interesting things about plants and learn words like paraheliotropism and thigmonasty. Who doesn't want to throw a word like "thigmonasty" into their conversation? Or their rap song?

Anyway the thing is, that by the time you are done reading their blog post for the day you are smarter than when you started. How do they do that?

Light As A Feather

stiff as a board. And speaking of...boards, not stiffs, here is our board. Aren't they a good looking bunch? This picture was taken at their last retreat, and I'm not talkin' about Bonapart's retreat. These folks are getting things done.

I remember playing that game Light as a Feather and Stiff as a Board when I was a kid. I wasn't inclined towards magic so the hocus pocus part was lost on me. What I did realize was through my experience as a feather was if a bunch of people pitched in all of a sudden you could lift a twelve year old girl. Cool. And that is just what our board is doing. Everyone is pitching in and we are accomplishing great things. I am so excited for what the upcoming year is going to bring. It is going to be wonderful.

Vail

So, to start the big road trip out last Tuesday Cristina and I stopped at the Betty Ford Alpine Garden. Umm. Yeah, I know. That garden looks a lot more interesting when it isn't covered in a blanket, make that a thick down comforter, of snow. 

PS

This is how far this plant thing has gone with me. Some of you may know that in my previous career I was an art historian and spent a majority of my life preoccupying myself with terribly important issues like form over function and art for art's sake. 

I was so wrapped up in the plants I didn't even notice the absolutely fantastic sculptures by Henry Moore that were sprouting up all over the place (pun only now intended). When I first walked into the gardens at DBG I did notice the smell of linseed oil and take a quick walk down memory lane before being distracted by some really lovely clumps of snow on the evergreens in the Japanese Garden. Only once the visions of hot sunny days intermingling with cold wintry ones left my eyes did I see the really big statue that was staring me in the face. Is that really??? Oh yes it is!!!! It was one of those really glorious moments when two of your loves surround you.

I love it when that happens.

Winter Color

So this morning I was at the DBG checking out the gardens, seeing how they were holding up under the snow. Cristina had a meeting with their volunteer coordinator and I miraculously had meetings with no one but the plants. Perfect.

I am ready to wax poetic about amber, ochre and honey and the lovely blond seed heads on the grasses tossing back and forth in the wind. Don't get me wrong, the prickly pear had turned a lovely shade of burgundy and created a texture that I'd like to recreate on my office wall. The atriplex was really green, like summer green. And if you looked for them, here and there were glimpses of all the greens of spring tucked in between rocks and crevasses. 

But it was that soft, sweet, sunshiney yellow that predominated through the snowy landscape. It was  as though summer and winter were holding hands. Enjoying each other without the showy interference of the brilliant colors of spring and fall. 

Flowers and Frogs

Conservatories are sooo great. Where else can you see frogs that look like trees and flowers that look like birds?

First Sign of Spring

They are here and they don't care about the snow and ice. This is when they are supposed to be here and here they are with their red breasts just a bob bob bobbin' along. And they are making a huge mess of the mulch! Darn those robins!

Roses!

Everything's coming up roses!  You gotta love Ethel Merman. But everything is coming up roses. See? The photo below is the President and Vice-President of the Grand Valley Rose Society giving the Gardens a donation. We love those folks. And they love us. Yes, Valentine's Day is coming up and muddling my mind but it is a good thing. Love is a good thing.