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28 June 2009

The Crown Jewel of DSBG

Upon stepping through the front doors of the glass-encased oasis, you don't quite know whether you are hot or cold. I suppose that it would be most accurate to say that I was on the brink of both, hot and cold, teetering somewhere in between. After the sweltering heat we encountered outdoors, I half expected to be greeted by a refreshingly cool blast of air as we walked into The Orchid Conservancy, but alas, we were not.



What we were greeted by, though, was a landscape of lush foliage, and around every corner we were met with the most engaging plant life. One of the most stunning displays in the entire exhibit were the Tillandsia Archways. We spent quite sometime time admiring those amazing little air plants throughout that corridor. So many varieties that I hadn't seen before.

Tillandsia Plants

Although, the real shop-stopper was just around the bend! Directly after the last archway, you run into a 16 foot stone wall with a cascade that is full of epiphytes. Unfortunately, the orchids in this display weren't accessible, which was a little sad because some of them had the best smells! I remember a few from our visit to the Fuqua Conservancy in the Atlanta Botanical Gardens.

Orchid Wall

As we slowly weaved our way through this horticultural display, we witnessed more than 14,000 plants and flowers. I went ahead and passed through twice just in case I missed something the first time--which normally happens. Now, I don't know how we missed it on the first walk through, but there was a little room off the back that was cranking out some bone chilling a/c! It was GLORIOUS!

Orchid

Reluctantly, we left the chill-zone to finish out our 2nd-time-around-tour. Even though we were eager to find refuge in the next cool spot, we still took our sweet time making our way around the 8,000 sq ft ecosystem. If you ask me, there really is no other way to appreciate this artistic representation of nature!

Well, this is it for the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens 'Series' :)
If you missed the last post, you can view it here.

p.s. I finally set up my facebook page.

14 comments:

  1. These are lovely! Always so interesting seeing plant life from different parts of the world.

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  2. How could magical things not happen to you in a garden like that? Beautiful.

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  3. Jessica Great work and YOU are a great overcomer.Take a jump do alot more speaking now you have started put more wood on the fire.LOVE TO YOU AND CODY.

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  4. Thanks for reminding me about facebook, adding you as a friend now. But be warned I’m a face book snob (I don’t hang out there much)
    These photos are beautiful and I am in love with the collages in the previous post. Thanks for showing me around the gardens.

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  5. perfect description of a magical spot...with images and words

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  6. beautiful! i'd love to see all those orchids!

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  7. Seeing a strange breed of plant always amazed me! Thanks for sharing :-) And btw...lovely picture as usual :-)

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  8. Yey for facebook! lol

    Awesome flowers. :) I'm loving the pink ones (I'm not a plant namer... :D).

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  9. gorgeous shots (as always when I visit you). you have really enticed me to this garden.

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  10. Wow, these are awesome shots!

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  11. wow - 14000 plants! some gorgeous ones there ..

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  12. Wow, what fodder for photos there!

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  13. Very beautiful photos! All the plants look so beautifully bizarre, it feels like looking at photos of Wonderland!

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  14. Such beautiful captures! It would have been hard to leave.

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