Bananas and More Bamboo in the North Garden

Very crowded today with numerous elementary school groups and groups of families visiting and enjoying the beautiful conservatory. I’ve rarely heard the conservatory as noisy as I have today. What a pleasure to see and hear the delight and wonderment in our visitors.  

Red Ginger Flower

Ever curious about new developments in the plants, my slow wander through the conservatory produced not only updated information on flowering and fruiting plants, but also a new interesting find - I found some blood bananas hanging on a banana plant in the back of the North Garden.

Blood Bananas

Also in the back of the North Garden, the red ginger plant continues producing a handful of gorgeous red flowers in various stages of production. The photo that I've posted of these, of course, does not show the actual wonderment of the flower. Come in and visit with us to see them for yourself!

Another new North Garden delight is the development of a new bamboo stalk. These grow very quickly, so within days, the height of this stalk will triple.

New Bamboo Stalk

The Sunken Garden remains a beautifully visual and sweetly aromatic treat. I can't let a volunteer day go by without visiting this visual and aromatic delight! 

Flowers in the Sunken Garde

Charming Discoveries

Just from traveling to Como and noticing the small amount of perspiration sitting above my upper lip, I realized that today’s volunteer time would be a relatively sweaty one.

Entrance to Conservatory

And true enough, upon entering the forum entrance to the Fern Room, I felt the watery texture of the air beginning to exhibit itself as body sweat. A symptom of my currently busy workload, I sadly realized that I had left my water bottle at home and that I'd be spending much time near the indoor water fountains.

Brightening my sweaty thoughts were the large streams of smiling and laughing guests walking through the conservatory. Undaunted by the steamy environment, a large number of guests walked about, looking closely at the plant species, reading their signage, pointing at cool plant attributes and smiling at seeing and learning about our plant world.

Papaya Flowers

Patron smiles of wonderment always brighten my day whether from self-discovery or from when I've pointed out interesting but usually not obvious plant features. Today, several groups were very excited to see the growing pineapple and the Buddha's Hand tree fruit.  

Pineapple

Both are indeed charming discoveries. I brought the intricate beauty of the papaya, cotton and pomegranate flowers to their attention. One of Mother Nature's beautiful ways of plant reproduction!