Tag: orchids

Postcard from Queretaro, Mexico: Bouquet from a patio of Eden

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Above, orchids blooming in a patio of La Casa de los Ladrillos in Santiago de Queretaro

The Secret Garden was what Mary called it when she was thinking of it. She liked the name, and she liked still more the feeling that when its beautiful old walls shut her in no one knew where she was. It seemed almost like being shut out of the world in some fairy place.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden, 1911*

Offering a colorful bouquet in gratitude for the hospitality extended by our host last week in the historic center of Queretaro. Of course, we plucked these flowers virtually from his own garden filling all his patio space with plants that would rival those of any nursery. He has succeeded in creating a magical, soothing respite in the heart of city.

Continue reading “Postcard from Queretaro, Mexico: Bouquet from a patio of Eden” →

Postcard from the San Antonio Botanical Garden: Walking across Texas without leaving home

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Yesterday, we strolled among agave, mesquite and prickly pear native to South Texas and encountered an 1880 adobe hut. Crushing pine needles underfoot, we wandered through the East Texas Pineywoods and peered into an 1850s’ log cabin fronting a lake. And then we found ourselves in the shade of live oaks and maple trees of the Texas Hill Country with an 1849 limestone and fachwerk house from Fredericksburg and an 1880 piñon log cabin from Real County.

All of this while winding along the Texas Native Trail, which occupies 11 acres of the 38-acre San Antonio Botanical Garden.

We kept on meandering because it is impossible to skip over the colorful flowers abloom in the old-fashioned garden and the brilliant orchids and bromeliads found sheltered within one of the glass pavilions of the Lucile Halsell Conservatory.

And then, because it was well past noon in the middle of the summer, we stepped into Rosella at the Garden in the Sullivan Carriage House for a refreshing round of cold beer.

 

Postcard from Mexico City: Bloomers trumpeting their presence

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The promotional banner appears superfluous with birds of paradise pointing the way to the National Museum of Anthropology. A giant agave attracts attention in the midst of the Aztec ruins of the Templo Mayor adjacent to the zocalo. Trumpet flowers flamboyantly tout their beauty profiled against a royal blue wall in the garden of Casa Luis Barragan.

trumpet flowers at Casa Luis Barragan
agave on grounds of Museo del Templo Mayor
blooming aloe vera at National Palace
cinderblock planters for succulents in botanical garden in Chapultepec Park
tree in Roma Norte
blooming aloe vera at National Palace
greenhouse in botanical garden in Chapultepec Park
botanical garden in Chapultepec Park
lilies at Casa Luis Barragan
orchids in botanical garden in Chapultepec Park
hydrangea at Museo Dolores Olmedo
agave at Museo Dolores Olmedo

But, on the practical side as our balcony planters age, I want to remember the simple cinder blocks adapted as containers for succulents in the botanical garden in Chapultepec Park.