Whew!

First of all, I have to say that I love the DDA. They were the ones who alerted us to the fact that the electricity was going to be turned off today between 5 and 6pm because of work being done at a substation. Yikes! Panic in the streets! Panic in the streets! The plants! The butterflies! The outdoor fountain!

It all worked out ok. Whew.

I Hope

I hope that some day the WCBG can have something like this before it is too late.

The De Young Museum

I know what you're thinking. "What does an art museum have to do with a botanic garden?" You're not are you. You're really thinking "Yikes! Tomorrow is Christmas eve and I don't have Uncle Ed's present yet." To take your mind off of that trifling matter, let me explain what an art museum has to do with a botanic garden.

The landscaping at the De Young Museum was amazing. I took this picture because I loved the fact that here was this cute little garden, almost a huge terrarium because it was behind glass in this space that would have otherwise gone to waste. Not only did I like the placement of the garden but I loved that the entire thing consisted of only two types of plants and some rock. Way cool.

Underwhelmed

Well today was the big day. I was so excited to go to the California Academy of Sciences. We tried to go yesterday and it was sold out so we went today. All I can say is I was really underwhelmed. Yeah, they have a facility that they spent a gazillion dollars on. Yeah, the best and brightest worked on bringing it into existence. But it seems our little greenhouses have a bigger diversity of plants. They may have blue morphos, but I think we actually have more butterflies per square foot. And more nectar sources per butterfly.

The facility is interesting and all. I did like that you walk up a ramp through the butterfly house so you start out in the "swamp" and then move up through the different layers of a rainforest, up through the trees and end up in an area at the top where the nectar sources are. That is smart because that is where a lot of the butterflies are. Butterflies are inherently going to fly up toward the sun.

It did bother me that the whole space seemed geared on getting you through and out. There was no where to sit, no where to even stand and look. But I think it works for them because it was packed. There were a ton of people there. They were filled to capacity and not letting anymore in. At 25 bucks a pop they were raking in some serious cash. I know it takes a lot to keep a facility like that going plus I'm sure some of that goes to the their research projects. And when you look at it like that it is a pretty effective thing. The whole place houses an aquarium, butterfly house, planetarium and rooftop garden. It has an education center, cafe and gift store. It was like a scientific Whitman's Sampler. Just a little taste of all kinds of things so you can see what you like.

I'd say if you are going to visit. Go on Wednesday. It is free day.

Anyway here are my pictures from the butterfly house for what they're worth.

Time Travel

No, I actually did not time travel, as you can tell by my friend Michael in the foreground there. But it sure looks like I got shot right back to the Mesozoic era or something. Plants are so amazing. Some of them haven't changed in thousands of years. And here are some.

So Exotic!

Oh, the weather outside is frightful,
But in Oakland its quite delightful,
Since I'm there and you're in Co-lo-rad-o,
Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

I'm in Oakland for a short vacation before the holidays . I get to have fall one more time this year. The maples here are still firey red and the temperatures are a bit warmer. I'm enjoying seeing different types of plants as I'm walking around. Some of them we have in our greenhouses. A few months ago that would have irritated me. I thought that just because it is something common to a part of the United States, or common at all, it shouldn't be in our greenhouses or our Botanical Garden. But Shirley, wise woman that she is, pointed out to me that not everyone is going to go to California or Florida or any of these places where these plants grow. She's got a point. A very good point. And it got me thinking. What is exoctic? I'm saying it is something unusual, something you don't see everyday. I looked up the term "exotic" at dictionary.com and out of 6 of their definitions, 5 of them referred to plants. And all referred to the fact that something is from another place.

I've been referring to some of the plants that will be going into the new native plant japanesque garden as exotic. Eventhough the plants are native to the Western Slope of Colorado, some of them are from "another place". They are not from our carefully tended gardens, the meticulously planned landscaping or even our local nurseries. And in that way it makes them exotic.

So I've lightened up on my view of what plants we should have in the greenhouses. And the rest of our gardens. Something common in California can most certainly be exotic in Colorado. And something common in the wilds of Western Colorado can be exotic in a garden in town.

Ghostly Frost

Yesterday the humidity and cold temperatures turned the Gardens ghostly.






It is such a contrast when you go into the greenhouses.


We get the best of both worlds down here at the Gardens.