The Domes
Last Sunday we roadtripped over to Milwaukee to check out the Mitchell Park Horticultural Conservatory (The Domes) for some horticultural excitement. I hadn’t been in years, but remember not being impressed the last time I was there. Built in the mid 60′s, The Domes were recently upgraded with new lighting and tons of great plants. Read all about it in a recent WSJ article. They did a great job! I think it may be only conservatory I’ve been to that offers alcoholic beverages at all times. There are was a little cooler full of beers and single serve white wine for $4.00 a piece. Welcome to Wisconsin!
Ceiba pentandra
I’m not 100% sure that this is Ceiba pentandra… I was lazy and didn’t take pics of plant tags. Then I spent twenty minutes googling around to figure out what type of Ceiba I took a pic of.
Phoenix palm
Thanks to Jason the main man of The Palm Broker at Flora Grubb for helping me out in the ID department for these two.
Ravenala madagascariensis
A ginormous relative to the bird-of-paradise, Ravenala madagascariensis has freaky blue seeds with edible appendages.
Happy Tropical Land
Amorphophallus titanum
They have a big Amorphophallus titanum (corpse flower) hanging out next to a bunch of ephiphytes.
Zoe & the staghorn fern
The Domes are definitely worth a visit. Zoe slept the entire time we were there. You can check out all our pics on flickr.
Please stay off the Liriope
We took advantage of one of the last warm days around to catch some late Autumn action at Olbrich Botanical Gardens last week before all the leaves fell. The freeze got a bunch of stuff a couple weeks ago. It was a sad day.
Bridge to Thai Pavilion
Thai Pavilion
Crazy Cabbage
I love ornamental cabbage & kale. Next year I vow to have more of both out back.
What’s this?
I even took a pic of the tag of this plant, but deleted it. Since moving back to Wisconsin my botanical Latin has gone down the tubes. I used to be so good, but it took lots of time to look up every damn plant I took a pic of. I googled that stuff to make sure my spellings were right on, but don’t have the time for that sort of shenanigans anymore. *update, there has been a positive identification of Amsonia hubrichtii by facebook fan George, thanks George!
Reflection
Matti & Zoe
Shorts and sandals weather last week, not so much this week…
Tillandsia funckiana
It’s official, I’m addicted to Instagram. I needed a new stationary hobby to do while feeding Zoe in addition to watching lots and lots of bad tv (she eats a lot). Yesterday we went to Olbrich Botanical Gardens to check out the Bolz Conservatory and get out of the house for a little bit. Tillandsia funckiana is one of our faves and just happened to be blooming like crazy. I linked this top pic to my Instagram pic if you want to find me (they’re also on flickr). I’d love to have more Instagrammers to follow, my user name is faroutmegan & Matti is fofmatti.
Bromeliad Party
Lots of bros were doing their flowery thing at the Conservatory. They have a great assortment of them.
Checking out the Chenille Tree (Acalypha hispida)
Happy Tropicals
What’s this?
Didn’t grab the name of this cool flowered plant. Anyone know what it is?
Autumn Arrangement
I love decorative cabbages and kales… so much so I planted ones you’re supposed to eat out back and only gaze at them with love.
Brugmansia in a pot
So we’ve been blogging slackers since moving to Wisconsin. My pregnant hormones started out as sad and weepy, then transitioned to pissed off and angry. I would have been posting things like, “Nice use of way too much ugly red mulch, did you forget the plants?”, “It’s 107 degrees, I think we’ve moved to hell”, “Your lawn ornaments are terrible!” and other crabby things. It wasn’t a pretty time. We’re a fifteen minute walk from Olbrich Botanical Gardens here in Madison and it’s FABULOUS! I love that it’s continuously changing in ways that SF Botanical Garden just couldn’t pull off due to it’s ginormousness and year round need of upkeep. It was looking extra awesome this August. For all our summer Olbrich pics check out this link. If you didn’t hear already our baby is here and a week old today!
Zinnia
Dill and friends
Grass!
Joe Pye Weed
Euphorbia myrsinites, Donkeytail Spurge
Crazy Container
Puya chilensis
Freaky Bromeliad alert! On Friday I went to the San Francisco Botanical Garden for what may have been the last time while living here in SF. I must have spent at least four hours walking around visiting all my favorite plants. While wandering around the CA Native section back by the greenhouses I ran in to Derek of Plantgasm finishing up his propagation volunteer time. I had seen these crazy Puyas getting ready to bloom maybe a month ago, so we headed over to see what was going on and check out succulent land one last time.
Puya chilensis I think
I couldn’t find a sign, so I’m guessing this is Puya chilensis. Anyone know for sure?
Puya alpestris
Puya alpestris is still blooming. It looks like the Puya venusta should be doing its thing in a couple weeks, too.
Matti and the Puya
I took this pic back on March 18th and the bloom pictured is now shot. The bud to the right is blooming right now.
The Succulent Garden
I hate to get all mushy and stuff, but the San Francisco Botanical Garden is where we received the majority of our plant education. Nearly three years ago Matti and I enrolled in Plant Identification class at City College with Malcolm Hillan, it changed our lives. We spent two semesters of Saturdays at the botanical garden from 9 to 1, learning anywhere from 12-15 plants per class. We had to learn it all including family name, genus, species, origin, zone, sun, water, and spelling counted on quizzes and tests. Matti and I were both pretty freaked out after the first class when we could barely remember all the details for our first plant California native, Platanus racemosa and knew we had 149 more plants to go. Thanks Malcolm and our favorite classmates Rene and Johanna for making it so much fun!
p.s. the CA Native section is going off right now, too!
