Frederick Meijer Gardens (Grand Rapids, Michigan)

During our visit to Grand Rapids, Michigan, we set aside an afternoon for visiting the Frederick Meijer Garden. In retrospect, we should have set aside an entire day - or two! Sprawling over 139 acres, both indoors and out, the garden is a wondrous, magical collection of theme gardens, nature trails, boardwalks, art galleries, and indoor and outdoor sculptures. The outdoor sculpture garden alone was one of the most intriguing and satisfying experiences I've ever had in a botanical garden and I could have spent hours walking among the wooded trails, discovering delightful and intriguing objects around each new corner. We took 100's of pictures, making it extremely difficult to pick just a few for the blog, but hopefully these capture the essence of our visit.

Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden

The last thing we did before leaving Des Moines was visit the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden. At first glance, the geodesic-domed conservatory doesn't look like it could house a very big collection, but the 80 foot tall, 150 foot wide Plexiglas panels house a variety of plants ranging from lush tropical vines and trees, delicate orchids, and colorful coleus, to desert succulents, and everything in between. Every 6 weeks the Master Gardeners are given a concept to use as a springboard for creating a new horticultural display. "High Flight" was the theme when we were there, based on the poem of the same name by John Gillespie Magee, Jr. The poem was the inspiration for suspending gardens and plants in the air and structures that raise an endless variety of plants to eye level and above. We were delighted and amazed at all the creativity! Here are some of the pictures from the gardens.

Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens

It's hard to say whether waterfalls or botanical gardens are more abundant in Hawaii, but it would be a shame to come all this way and not take advantage of both. Our first botanical garden visit this trip was to the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens and was time well spent. The 40-acre valley is a natural greenhouse, protected from buffeting trade winds and blessed with fertile volcanic soil. Nature trails meander through a true tropical rainforest, crossing bubbling streams, passing several waterfalls, and encompassing ocean vistas along the rugged Pacific coast. With over 2,000 species of plants, representing more than 125 families and 750 genera, it was not a surprise that we came home with over 200 pictures on our camera. It was almost impossible to choose which ones to include in this post, but I managed to keep the count under 30!