Our Tour of a Botanical Garden…and an ‘Adventure’

Whenever we visit our family in Omaha, our son always seems to have a plan to keep us entertained.  As a consequence, we’ve seen a lot of historic buildings, visited multiple museums, gone for some interesting drives and eaten in many restaurants offering a variety of cuisines.  During our visit this past May, these area explorations continued.

The family, Laurie, myself, David II, Amy, David III and Emmett Lee loaded into the SUV and we were off to Omaha’s Lauritzen Gardens.  This expansive botanical garden, located near the Missouri River and close to the center of the city, is really a living four-season museum of plant displays.  The huge glass structure in the photo is the Marjorie K. Daugherty Conservatory.  This giant greenhouse cost $20,000,000 to build and it was opened in 2014.

Group photos are obligatory, at least from my viewpoint.  We took these photos shortly after we entered the greenhouse/conservatory.  The first photo features David II, Amy, Emmett, David III and Nana, aka Laurie.  The second photo features ‘just us guys’. 

On to select photos of the plants and flowers as well as occasional features noted in Lauritzen Gardens.  This eye-catching fountain flanked is flanked by a handsome pair of ‘Agave americana ‘Marginata’.  Native to Mexico and Texas, this plant is cultivated worldwide as an ornamental plant.  It lives from between 10 and 30 years and near the end of its life it sends up a tall branched stalk with yellow blossoms.  These stalk can grow to 25 feet in height or even more.  Shoots from the base of the plant continues the plant’s growth.

Agave Americana has been used in traditional medicine to treat various ailments.  Other uses of these plants include agave nectar, rope, matting, coarse cloth and 3 different alcoholic beverages – pulque, mescal and tequila.

I didn’t know that the Bird of Paradise flower/plant was native to South Africa.  It belongs to the plant family ‘Strelitziaceae’, a genus named in honor of Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Queen Consort of King George III.  This plant’s popular name, ‘birds-of-paradise’, came from its resemblance to birds of that name from South Africa.

In South Africa, it is commonly known as a crane flower and it’s featured on the reverse of the 50-cent coin.  This flower is also the floral emblem of the City of Los Angeles. 

The `7,500 square foot conservatory is loaded with luxurious flowers, foliage, plant life, water features and dramatic views.  With its tropical gardens, palms, bamboo trees and stunning floral displays…not to mention scenes like this pond with its glass ‘water lily’ fountain and that elephant getting a drink…there is more to meet the eye than one can comprehend in a short time.

Bananas anyone?  By this time, the family was far ahead of yours truly as I stopped to take lots of photos.  But it wouldn't be long, thanks to my independent exploration, before they really would be going 'bananas'!  

Orchids, orchids everywhere!  I was drawn to this yellow variety but there were many others on view.  With about 28,000 currently accepted species, orchids comprise one of the two largest families of flowering plants.  This number is about equal to the number of bony fishes, twice the number of bird species and four times the number of mammal species.

I wasn’t aware that Vanilla is the product the dried seed pods of an orchid genus of the same name.  Of course, vanilla is widely used in baking, perfume manufacturing and aromatherapy.

This large tortured looking cactus looks like I can feel on a bad day… This is a Peruvian Apple Cactus.  This cactus is also known as the ‘giant club cactus’ or the ‘hedge cactus’.  These cactus can grow to reach a height of 33 feet.  

It produces large, cream-colored nocturnal flowers that only stay open for one night…but they are of vital importance to pollinating bats.  The fruits are thornless and vary in skin color from violet-red to yellow.  The edible flesh is white and it contains small, edible crunchy seeds.  As the cactus grows in arid regions and it fruits in the dry seasons, the fruit is an essential source of food for birds in its native range.

Now onto the outdoor portion of Lauritzen Gardens…  

Time for a couple of family photos before ‘the adventure’ begins.  This is David II standing by one of the many ponds and water features found throughout the gardens.  He’s the larger of the two figures in the photo…

In this photo Laurie posed next to an attractive ‘Manchurian Lilac’.  She wouldn’t pose for me for the rest of the visit to the garden…details to follow.

This particular species of lilac is native to Korea and China... Lilacs belong to a genus of 12 species of flowering woody plants (bushes or small trees) in the ‘olive family’.  This genus is native to southeastern Europe and eastern Asia…but, as anyone knows who has ever lived in the eastern half of the USA, they are commonly cultivated in many temperate zones.  As popular as lilacs are, it should be no surprise that there are several lilac festivals held in the USA and Canada every year…

This is the entrance to the Robert H. Storz Family Rose Garden.  Dedicated in the early fall of 1997, this formal and colorful rose garden contains almost 2,000 rose plants of many varieties.  

But, I really didn’t explore the Rose Garden…and this is actually where the ‘adventure’ began!

There has been some debate as to what was said or agreed to.  David II and Laurie wanted to walk over to check out the Japanese Garden that was under construction and I wasn’t interested.  According to some, I agreed to stay where I was until the two of them backtracked to my location.  Of course I don’t recall any such agreement…and that’s how the ‘adventure’ began!

Right after Laurie and David II headed for the Japanese Garden, a fellow passed who told me that he was in charge of Lauritzen Garden’s outdoor train operation and exhibit.  I looked at my map and I could see that it was close to the rose garden right next to the main path leading back to the Visitor’s Center.  If you follow me at all, you know that I’m ‘into’ trains, depots and transportation in general…so on down the path I went!

Look what I discovered!  Cleverly constructed buildings and bridges complete with life action G-scale model trains!  Lots of fun and lots to look at!  Seven model trains were in motion… The model railroad garden surrounds visitors and it features miniature communities and landscapes.  Structural elements are made with leaves, twigs, bark, berries, pinecones, gourds and cinnamon sticks…all scaled to size.

…and then I continued on along the path toward the visitor’s center, calculating that Laurie and David II would catch up with me as I’m not walking too fast at this stage in my life.

Beyond our miscommunication or misunderstanding at the Rose Garden, I proceeded to make one ‘little’ error in judgement, making my first 'error' quite a bit more impactful.  I went left when I should have gone right…thrown off by a tram parking spot on the main path.  I ended up wandering in a big loop through the Arboretum and Oberman Bird Sanctuary.

This 4-acre site features 7 regional plant communities: prairie, savannah, oak hickory forest, maple linden forest, farmstead windbreak plus marsh and flood plain river margin.  Located along the Missouri River flyway, this area attracts many migratory birds.  Feeders and nest boxes are located throughout the sanctuary.  By now I realized that I'd made a wrong turn...but I figured I'd just keep moving along and taking photos.

This restful scene in the photo above is titled “End of Day”.  The bronze sculpture of sand hill cranes was completed by artist Dee Clements and it was installed in the memory of Pauline Ruth Roberts Seaver by her family. 

Dee Clements is based in the Cleveland Ohio area.  He has works on display in at least 13 states and the District of Columbia.  Plus he’s completed many private collection sculptures as well as commercial works.  His website is at https://deeclements.com/.

So while I was 'lost' and wandering along the arboretum/bird sanctuary trail and getting my exercise for the day, stress was setting in for Laurie and David II.  Since I wasn’t at the Rose Garden waiting for them, they naturally followed the pathway back to the visitor’s center…but I was nowhere to be found!  Concern and a bit of understandable panic set in!

In the meantime, I kept taking photos as I moved along ‘the garden path’ in an effort to find the correct road ‘home’… I had never seen red feather clover before and it is truly striking!  However, when I looked it up on the Internet, I couldn’t find any clover…red feather or not…that had red leaves.

While I was taking this photo of Mountain Bluet, all the real action was taking place elsewhere in the Gardens.  By now, Laurie was showing my photo to folks at the visitor's center and the family was spreading out to search for me…

The mountain bluet is a popular medicinal plant in Central Europe.  Also known as the perennial cornflower, mountain cornflower or montane knapweed it is endemic to the southern mountain ranges of Europe.  It escapes from gardens readily and has become established in the British Isles, Scandinavia and North America.  It has already been declared to be an invasive species in British Columbia, Canada.

My personal 'adventure' as well as the family’s search for me continued even as I completed the wayward loop and neared the main path back to the visitor’s center.  I captured this photo of a spectacular ‘white fringetree’ along the way.  By this point in time, I figured I was in big trouble!

The White fringetree is native to the savannahs and lowlands of the southeastern USA…from New Jersey to Florida and west as far as Oklahoma and Texas.  In the Appalachian Mountains these trees, which can reach 36 feet in height, are sometimes referred to as ‘Grancy Gray Beard’ and ‘Old Man’s Beard’.

The dried roots and bark of these trees were used by Native Americans to treat skin inflammations and their crushed bark was used to treat sores and wounds.  Of some concern is their apparent ‘use’ or infection by emerald ash borers where the range of ash trees and white fringetrees overlap…

It does seem appropriate that these wild turkeys were in the last photo I took during my ‘adventure’ down the wrong path.  We have plenty of these birds wandering around our neighborhood, forests and nearby farm land in East Tennessee and there are estimated to be over 7,000,000 of these birds in North America.

Speaking of wild ‘turkeys’, that would have been the kindest thing that Laurie and the family search team could have called me when I ran into them as I finally neared the Lauritzen Gardens visitors center.  They had visions of me lying prone along some path in the gardens.  David II, Laurie, David III and Emmett had all gone down ‘the garden path’ in search of yours truly.  Well, we finally ‘found’ each other…  At least one of us got to explore the arboretum and bird sanctuary and I did get a lot of exercise! 

After a bit of righteous abuse, our family ‘adventure’ was over…but now I’ve had to commit to always carrying my cell phone with me whenever I’m not with someone who has one.  Bummer!  I hate carrying that dang thing with me but then again I don’t want to stress out Laurie and the family any more than I already do!

Except for my special adventure, the family enjoyed our visit to Lauritzen Gardens.  The Gardens are open 362 days a year.  Their website is found at https://www.lauritzengardens.org/.  

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave