Cactus and Succulent Show and Sale

Yesterday I went to the Missouri Botanical Garden for probably my shortest visit ever. We've been going almost every week for the free Wednesday concerts of the Whitaker Music Festival and those visits are just a few hours without seeing too much of the gardens -- this visit was much shorter.

My goal was the Henry Shaw Cactus and Succulent Society's plant show and sale, which is in the main (entrance) building. I never even made it into the gardens at all.

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Garlic

Apparently, it's time to harvest the garlic. I know this because my neighbor was recently digging his up.

I'm not as on top of harvest dates as I should be. Good to have reminders nearby!

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Equisetum discovery

One of my favorite Missouri native plants is Equisetum hyemale, or "scouring rush". This seems-to-consist-only-of-stems plant adds a vertical element to the garden that I really love.

Although my plants are quite young and therefore not too impressive, I've seen thick plantings of this and can't wait until mine reach that density.

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Just gets better!

A couple of weeks ago I was talking about volunteer plants, in particular this larger one which was growing at the front of one of my beds:

I loved it's large leaves and its strong upright habit, suspecting it was an Asclepias of some kind. Well, things have just gotten better!

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A little surprise amongst the weeds

You know how I've said in the past that I actually enjoy weeding, at least in small doses? If you don't remember here are my reasons: you restore order to a crazy planting bed, you get up-close and personal with many of your plants, it's repetitive and calming, and there's a gratifying sense of accomplishment when you're finished.

Here's another reason to add to the list: you sometimes find things that you'd otherwise pass right by.

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Finally, planting cactus!

This past Saturday morning I was really excited to get outside and do some work in the garden. I wasn't able to get out there as early as I had hoped to, and when I did it was more difficult to get started than I expected.

Oh, it's not that my enthusiasm was waning. No, my problem was choosing the right project to start with on what I expected to be a long day in the heat.

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Walkway update

I realized that it's been a while since I've posted photos of the walkway, not having done that since I expanded the bed on one side and put more plants into the ground.

That was only a month ago, but the plants have filled in so much! I don't know why that surprises me, but looking at garden photos that are only a month or two old sometimes gives me a shock -- such changes!

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Catching up

When I'm out and about I typically don't have my DSLR with me, so it's down to the phone camera when I see something that needs to be snapped. Fortunately phone cameras are getting quite good, and as the old photographer adage goes "the best camera is the one you have with you", so I don't hesitate to take shots of something that interests me even a little bit.

The problem is, once they're on my phone I tend to forget about them. Only when looking for some specific old photo do I come across them and realize that I never shared. Today I'll show you a few of these.

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Forgotten gardens!

Several of the garden bloggers I follow often post about other gardens they've visited. Amazingly often. Gardens of friends, favorite nurseries, garden tours, public gardens in other parts of their states or the country, even just interesting gardens they see when walking around the neighborhood.

I have to admit that when reading these posts I feel a bit jealous. Sure, I do post about other gardens once in a while, but it seems I'm just not doing it enough maybe. It seems like I don't really get around much. Then I remembered: on a business trip last month I took some photos of Boston-area gardens!

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