What the bloggers saw

Our blogger meet-up group spent the morning at Olbrich Botanical Gardens on Madison's east side. It was a beautiful sunny day perfect for exploring gardens but not the best for taking photos. This container of succulents was a big hit as it is surrounded by "binoculars" that create kaleidoscope images of the plants when you look through them.

Coleus en masse spurred a conversation about the changes in this plant over the time we've all been gardening.

Rose snaps Lisa's photo "within" the sculpture at the far end of the reflecting pool in the Sunken Garden. We spent a lot of time oohing and aahing over the plant combinations in these massive borders. Lots of snapping pix of i.d. tags!

One of the entrances to the Herb Garden where we did lots of touching and smelling and found an Olbrich horticulturalist to i.d. a couple of plants for us.

The Herb Garden featured lots of espaliers, topiary and creative ways with plants.

This tomato tower was in a raised bed and towered over us. If you look closely you can see the tree branches that were used to create it. 

The gardens were full of visitors but there are so many spaces with trees, shrubs and masses of grasses separating them that we felt as if our group was all alone.

This dead tree was given a temporary reprieve and had holes drilled into it to hold branches that could support vining plants. It will eventually be replaced with a new specimen. It definitely suggested to us that we shouldn't be too quick to remove things from our gardens when they decline until we are sure they have no other use.

These playful tiger sculptures graced a huge weeping willow tree. 

We climbed to the top of the tower in the Rose Garden to get an overview of Olbrich. But what caught my eye were these huge hanging planters. 

I loved the look of the velvet leaves of Salvia argentea which I never would have thought to put in a planter. The silvery color nicely related to the railings but contrasted with the nearby vines and climbers. 

More about what we saw tomorrow.

Comments

[Lisa at Greenbow]

I loved the sculpture, inside and out.
Next summer I will have a wall of coleus on our patio.
So many ideas and inspirations.

[Loree / danger garden]

That tree with the holes/branches...genius!

[rusty duck]

What a clever way of repurposing a dead tree.

[Rose]

Catching up on Bloom Day posts, I just discovered your posts on our bloggers' get-together. Such an enjoyable day--beautiful gardens, including your own, Linda!