Green Bay Botanical Garden in mid-August

One of the newest additons to the Green Bay Botanical Garden is the Conifer Garden.  In spring of 2013,  83 tons of limestone boulders were brought in from quarries surrounding Northeast Wisconsin in preparation for the installation of dwarf conifers, low growing evergreens that typically grow to less than the size of their parent plants. The design is intended to showcase the conifers not so much as a “collection”, but rather as they would be integrated into a well-designed home garden.  Perennials, chosen to provide the maximum beauty for color and form for visitors strolling through the garden, were installed in the spring of 2014.  They will be relocated as the conifers grow and reach their mature size.  

View from the top of the conifer garden
where water bubbles from a stone fountain
down into a pondless basin of stones.

English cottage style garden

Bee skep is hidden here

A colorful late-summer floral display

A lovely display of seasonal flowers
 floating in a ceramic pot

Floral displays on Mackinac Island

 Gardening is the art that uses flowers and plants as paint, and the soil and sky as canvas. 

-Elizabeth Murray

Upon exiting the ferryon Mackinac Island, visitors are greeted with colorful flower baskets hanging from lamp posts up and down the Main Street.  

Lilac hanging baskets at the Lilac Tree Hotel

Porters gather bags from the ferry to transport to your hotel.  A quick walk or carriage ride takes you by residences and hotels with window boxes, hanging pots, containers, garden beds overflowing with cheerful floral displays.

Harbor View Inn

Topiaries at the Grand Hotel

Ferries returning to the mainland under the light of the moon

A drive north on M-119 through the" Tunnel of Trees" brings you to Legs Inn in Cross Village

"Nature is the greatest sculptor -

 I am only helping to make the artistic objects more visible to the ordinary eye."

-Stanley Smolak

creator of Legs Inn

Visiting Lavender Hill Farms in Boyne City, MI

Exploring gardens of Charlevoix, Michigan

Charlevoix 

Charlevoix "Mushroom houses"

Charlevoix Public Library Rain Garden

A delightful stay amidst the gardens of Horton Creek Inn Bed & Breakfast

And I brought along my own bouquet-the flowers my son Bryan sent for my birthday this year- to brighten our stay in the "Deer Room"

Janesville Rotary Garden's "Nature Nooks"

The Rotary Garden's 2015 Art Project includes 25 "Nature Nooks" designed after the "Little Library" program that will be auctioned off in the fall.

A stop at Janesville Rotary Gardens drive north

Herb Gardens

Culinary Herb Garden

Medicinal Herb Garden

Herb Garden

Childrens Garden

Sneak peak at underground plant roots