Unnatural tree

Walking through the arboretum, you will come upon sculptures that slip easily into the scenery.  

At first glance, it's another tree in the arboretum.  With a second look you can see a carefully designed sculpture.  

 

Patterns

The agave above and the yucca below look like mathematical patterns.  I'll bet if you could count each spiral it would match the Fibonacci series. 

0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,...

Anyone want to count?

 

Grandfather Crepe Myrtle

This Japanese Crepe Myrtle is one of the first ever planted outside of Japan.  It was planted in the 1950's.

 

More Butterflies

Monarch

Black swallowtail

 

All of a sudden, butterflies

Walking through the arboretum, we saw a lot of bees and flowers.

But no butterflies.  When we came to the native plant section, the butterflies were everywhere.

 

Alien?

As the bud of this hydrangea opened it looked like some kind of alien with slitted eyes and a big jaw.

The opened flowers were a bit other worldly too.

 

Agave

I was looking for plants to show off the wall behind.  But this agave is beautiful all on its own.  I liked the shape.

 

Weathered

I really liked the weathered wooden wall.  

 

Garden visitor

Walking through the arboretum we spied this little guy chomping on the plants.  Do they know they have a hungry visitor eating the displays?

 

Japanese garden

The entrance to the Japanese garden at the R.C.Raulston Arboretum.  The bell made a deep gonging sound, but it would take a good wind to make it sound.

 

Shady

Peeking through the shady arbor to the gazebo at the JC Raulston Arboretum.

Air Bee and Bee

This "Air Bee and Bee" is built for cavity dwelling bees.  They don't live in colonies like honey bees, they live individually in little tunnels.

This bee apartment gives them lots of choices about where they want to live.

Snow Globe?

 

This is a Japanese paper plant, the variety is Snow Globe. This one lives in the lathe house at the JC Raulston Arboretum.  They say this plant helps remove gaseous formaldehyde in the air.  Might be useful as well as ornamental...

Tree root

Even the tree roots are interesting at the JC Raulston Arboretum.  This one was on the path, and I think it was worn away by many people walking on it. 

vertical garden

I haven't tried this yet, but I'm thinking about it.  Vertical gardens are an idea when you don't have a lot of room, or if you have a wall you want to fill with something alive.  This is an easy idea I saw at the arboretum.  2 liter soda bottles hanging from string. 

Buzzzzzz

We found these bee boxes in the color garden at the JC Raulston arboretum.  They were quiet on a chilly winter day, but come summer I'll bet they're humming.  These boxes are for solitary bees.  They do not live in a colony, but they are important polinators.  Who knew!?