A garden must combine the poetic and the mysterious with a feeling of serenity and joy.
~Luis Barragan
If I am going to be working, it may as well be in a beautiful place like the North Carolina Botanical Garden! Just walking to and from my car offers glimpses of beauty and wonder every day. But, my favorite time is after the gates close and everyone has gone home…a stroll through the quiet garden habitats can be magical. Here is some of that magic from the last few weeks.
Bumblebee gathering pollen and nectar from a great blue lobelia (click photos to enlarge)
Green frog resting on a floating leaf as it transforms from a tadpole to a frog
The symmetry of some Okefenokee hooded pitcher plants
A young snapping turtle in our Coastal Plain habitat
The delicate flowers of yellow-fringed orchid
The urn-shaped seed vessel of meadow beauty
Aphids gathering for a picnic
Jack-in-the-pulpit seeds ripening to their striking red color
A young (maybe 2 years old) Eastern box turtle on the path
Silver-spotted skipper on pickerelweed
Close up of the seed head of an American lotus
After the seeds of an American lotus mature
A green lynx spider awaiting a meal
Roads End Naturalist 