Yesterday Janet and I took a three-hour stroll through the Connecticut College Arboretum, and I came home with 147 pictures! First we made our way through the native plant collection…
Connecticut College Arboretum
New London, Connecticut
… and then hiked through the woods, noticing the abundance of mountain laurel and flowering dogwood under the dying hemlocks, which used to rule the forest. Finally we made our way to a secret garden hidden in a corner of the arboretum, the Edgerton & Stengel Memorial Wildflower Garden.
We opened the gate and were soon greeted by a Cheshire cat, who let us know that it ‘didn’t matter which way we went’ in his lush and untamed neck of the woods. He appeared and disappeared as we explored the maze of paths, drawing our attention to various wildflowers and settings.
Janet will have to identify some of these flowers…
We were surprised to discover that maidenhair ferns have black stems – the black and green contrast was striking!
See the cinnamon sticks in the cinnamon fern?
To see the world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower;
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
~ William Blake
(Auguries of Innocence)
There are a couple of Jacks-in-the-Pulpit (aka Indian Turnips) in this picture if you look carefully – they’re not fully in bloom yet.
Sadly, all the hemlocks are slowly dying… new life is taking hold under bare branches…
The Cheshire cat disappeared before we could say good-bye.
After this delightful sojourn we sat and rested for a bit and studied our map. We still haven’t seen the whole arboretum, even after three hours! So we’re planning another visit in a month, when different things will be in bloom, and of course, we hope to come and see Shakespeare-in-the-Arboretum in July, too. Plans made, we then headed for Ruby Tuesday and quenched our thirsts with two strawberry lemonades each!
147 photos! Yep, been there, done that… You took some beautiful ones, that’s for sure, Barbara.
Thank you, Kathy… Everything seemed worth capturing!
Thank you for the stroll today, I feel like I went with you. You are a wonderful photographer…I love the captions…The poem…and you really know your stuff…I learned today..you know that’s my favorite thing to do. It might have to take second place to a walk in the arboretum. I am from the Seattle area and the University of Washington has a beautiful Arboretum and Japanese gardens. I have not been to them since before my daughter Jamie was born. I think they are wheelchair acssesable so I will just have to take her with me, she loves photography also. In short (ha ha) you have inspired me Thank you!
It was nice to have you along, Julie! 🙂 I learned a lot, too – Janet knows her wildflowers a lot better than I do… I don’t think I’ve ever been to a Japanese garden – it must be lovely and serene. If Jamie takes some pictures I hope you’ll share them on your blog, with her permission, of course. 🙂
Barbara – I followed you here from Kathy’s blog (Lake Superior Spirit). This is phenomenal — thank you!
Laurie Buchanan
Thanks so much for stopping by, Laurie! Glad you liked it!
Barbara –
I loved your photos, came across your blog as I am searching for plant id photos for a project I am working on for the Cacapon and Lost Rivers Land Trust in West Virginia. We are putting together a map of our watershed and including ID photos and info on a few of the species located in our neck of the woods. We want to include Cinnamon Fern on our map — and yours is the best picture I have found thus far. Just thought I would ask if you might be willing to let us use your photo on our map? It will be available in paper format and on the web. Thanks Kelly
Kelly, I would be very pleased and honored to let you use my cinnamon fern photo for your map! Please let me know when I can see it online or in print. Thank you for your kind words!