floral design & botanical blog
Cedar Ridge Preserve is a 600 acre tract of land just southwest of downtown Dallas, adjacent to Cedar Hill State Park. The preserve is maintained by Audubon Dallas, including the 9 miles of trails among the hilly terrain of juniper and oak forest.
Read MoreJust a few miles southeast of downtown Dallas is The Great Trinity Forest, an urban park occupying the flood plain of the Trinity River. In this park, a mile-long trail lightly tracks through the damp forest floor and marshland to a large stand of Texas buckeyes (Aesculus glabra var. arguta) near the river bank. This area represents one of the furthest west communities of A. glabra var. arguta, with most populations occurring from eastern Oklahoma to Ohio. In Texas, you can also find this species in the Hill Country, the deep Piney Woods forest, and along the Red River. This buckeye is a pretty uncommon species for this area, so when I heard they were blooming locally, a hiking trip was in order.
Read MoreOver the July 4th holiday, I visited Chicago and its Garfield Park Conservatory. The conservatory was established in the 1880s with the structure pictured below constructed in 1907, and designed by famous Chicago landscape architect Jens Jensen. The shape of the greenhouses was meant to emulate the haystacks of the Midwest. The interior specimens were planted in forms that relate to each other naturally and create "landscapes under glass", a style that was revolutionary at the time of construction. The conservatory is one of the largest in the US at 4.5 acres, 2 of which is under glass. It is known for its extensive collection of rare palms and its popular Desert House.
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