Visiting Henry Shaw's Garden

Sunday, June 19--On this weekend, my cousin Mike and his wife Debi visited us on their way home from a vacation in the Carolinas. One of their favorite spots in St. Louis is the Missouri Botanical Garden, or Henry Shaw's Garden as we locals call it. The Garden is celebrating its 150th year. The day was spectacular: low humidity, high in the 70s. So after church we changed into comfy clothes, ate lunch at Sassafras Cafe at the Garden and set out to enjoy the horticulture.

After the entrance, one of the first features one sees is the view across the Lily ponds to the Climatron. Sculpture is featured throughout the gardens, as well as fountains.


These colorful "onions" in the lily ponds were purchased after the Dale Chihuly exhibit a couple of years ago. They add extra color before the water lilies start to bloom.



The Garden is full of fountains, lakes, streams and other water features. This dramatic fountain just inside the entrance just invites visitors to pose for a photo. Debi, Mike and I enjoyed the spray from the fountain while Norm took our family photo to mark this visit.


This fountain depicting Canada Geese is one I hadn't noted on other visits. It is located near the center for home gardening.

Something about the angular features interested me so I had to take a closeup and try out my camera's zoom feature. If this had been a really hot day, it would have been tempting to jump in.


This area of the Garden features a lawn, various trees, vegetable and flower gardens, test plants, and an indoor center with "answer men and women" and definitive information about home gardening. It was about the halfway point between the North entrance on Shaw Avenue and our goal-- the Japanese Garden several "blocks" away near the southern boundary of the park.

New gardens are always being developed and this time we discovered the Carver Garden, dedicated to Missouri native botanist George Washington Carver. This hedge of profuse white pyramidal hydrangeas was higher than my head, and it enclosed the entire Carver garden.

A winsome bronze statue of Carver is in the center of the garden named for him. I took this with the zoom because it was hard to get close enough to decide what plant he is contemplating. it could be a peanut or sweet potato vine. He developed multiple uses for both crops as an alternative to cotton, which depleted the soil.

Carver's view is of this fountain and pond, which makes a very attractive center for this garden. I had a good time trying to "stop" the falling drops of water. By this time, we were all getting thirsty and wishing we had each packed a bottle of water along, since no vending areas were available or nearby, and the sun was a little hot despite the cool breeze.

On this day we didn't visit the English Woodland Garden, but this shady brook flowed out of it along the path to the Japanese Garden. Refreshing sights were everywhere, and we heard many different bird songs as we passed through the various habitats.





At last we reached the lake in the center of the Japanese Garden. Norm and I were daring, and walked out on the boardwalk, while Deb and Mike rested on a shady bench and just enjoyed the tranquil area. Koi come up to the boardwalks and bridges to be fed; a special mix of food for them is provided in vending machines in the area. I think the machines are stocked with no more food than the fish should consume in a day, to keep them from being overfed. Even so, many of them are HUGE. We always come home from The Garden with an itch to add some interesting plants to our yard. My cousin was researching trees on this visit because I think he wants to replace some poplars he had to cut down recently.

More than 20 years ago the Japanese Garden was developed with the cooperation of a sister city in Japan. Every Labor Day weekend, there is a Japanese Festival at the garden with demonstrations on bonsai, tea ceremonies, fashion shows and the wonderful Taiko Drummers. If it's not too hot, we will be back. Mike and Debi left for Tulsa on Monday morning, and we still haven't put the guest bed away. We do love company!