Riding the motor scooter in Wilmington this week, I stopped at the Arboretum for fresh air, peace, exercise and blogging.
The New Hanover County Arboretum is free, and is run by Cooperative Extension Service, so they're very focused on helping people with their agricultural efforts - the vegetable gardens show different ways to grow veggies, for instance. There's a growing focus on habitat - the right plants in the right place.
I took the self-guided tour, which is a good way to make sure you see it all.
One of the cool things they do there is they have the Ability Garden, where they help disabled people get to play with plants. They have quite a collection of gardening tools that are easier to use, and raised beds accessible to people in wheelchairs, and what not. It's a neat program.
The center of the area is a large pond, complete with island, and water plants, and sculpture. There are wetland gardens and deck gardens and conifer plantings and a cool children's garden and desert gardens... and my favorite was the Japanese garden, complete with teahouse.
There were very very tall trees in the conifer planting,
and very very tiny trees (bonsai) in the greenhouse.There were lots of varieties of roses in the rose garden - and something very rose-looking in the greenhouse but actually it's a succulent. It's name is Echeveria.
It was a most enjoyable afternoon.