Sunday, June 29, 2008

I spent a few days in Omaha last week, tending (and loving it!) my two grandchildren (L who has just now turned 5 years old, and A who is 2 1/2 years). Before I left, last Monday morning, my daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren took me to Lauritzen Gardens. It's Omaha's Botanical Center, is easy find, and is a wonderfully diverse place. They have over 100 acres with many garden areas, special attractions and events. Look it up! We all enjoyed the temporary attraction - the "Kid Structure" exhibit!

You encounter this sculpture, by a small lily pond, just before entering the admission center.

I really like water lilies!


This recirculating waterfall/pond
was very nicely done. There's a little bronze sculpture
of a child holding a frog at the left.

My son-in-law and granddaughter are
checking out the goldfish. :-)

My grandson is posing (for me) in front of another sculpture.I was quite excited about seeing the English Gardens.
They really were beautiful,
but I mistakenly was anticipating English Cottage Gardens.
Definitely not the same thing! ;-)

I like symmetry, but I'm not quite THIS particular about it!

This is the view as we left the English Garden.
I would LOVE to return to this garden for another session! It was a beautiful morning's tour.
I will post more of what we saw on The Grandkids' page, hopefully sometime this week.

This view looks towards the prairie area, as we left the grounds. The sprinkler was too much for my son-in-law and grandchildren to bypass. They had a wonderful time cooling off! :-)

5 comments:

Teresa said...

Ah water! Always a magnet for kids. I'm with you; cottage look is more me than traditional symmetrical gardening.

Iowa Victory Gardener said...

Hey Shady,
That looks like a wonderful place, and would actually be a reason to go over to Omaha sometime! Sounds like you just barely scratched the surface, so to speak. We would love to have water lilies and a koi pond, but that's just a pipe dream at this point, so great seeing others'!

I like their statuary too, quite tasteful than a lot I've seen, lol. Was that one by your grandson perhaps done by a local artist? Would be interesting to go there to soak in all the details!

You literally made me LOL with the comment about English vs Cottage Garden!! That's why I call our style "Savage Cottage Garden," there's not a straight line to be found! (well, maybe in some edging around the herb bed). I guess the English "Formal" garden has its place, but to me it's still a bit too Aristocratic for my/our tastes. If you think this is über symmetrical, you should see some Formal French Style gardens ... they're even more over the top! The ones at Versailles are excruciatingly precise, but pretty in their own way ... L'Orangerie (orange greenhouse) was really cool though ... to think the royalty had their own oranges grown for them!

Annie in Austin said...

It's always fun to find out about another botanical garden - this one does look interesting, Shady, although your experience of it must have been colored by seeing it with grandchildren ;-]

The Chicago Botanical Garden has another type of English garden - the English Walled Garden. It's been a while since we were there but it used to be one of my favorite places, with controlled form for the hardscape and exuberance from the plants.

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

Shady Gardener said...

Teresa, Magnet indeed! And I love the sound of flowing water in the garden.

IVG, :-) I really did enjoy my very short visit there. The attraction for both the youngsters and adults were the "buildings" created for kids (a display for this year, only) by the various architecture firms of Omaha. A fun variety of form as well as access for involvement. The other display is a train display commissioned and created by an artist in Ohio. He transported it in large pieces and set it up. (This has been, so far, a two-year process.) It's really great! Trestle bridges, tracks, small buildings, etc. I'll be posting... ;-)

Shady Gardener said...

Annie, Thanks for your link to the Chicago Botanical Garden! There are some wonderful things to see there, aren't there? Also, the shows, etc! Omaha had only the one small English Garden... Chicago's seems much more versatile. Although, I'm still more a "natural and maybe it came that way" yard gardener. ;-)