Mo. Botanical Gardens

I posted this at the garden web so if you saw or see it there pls. excuse the double posting ...but some of youse do not visit the GW so I am posting it here... I again as always will try to post some pics ...I know I always say that but i just have been too busy I will soon although it wasn't primo leaf pic time anyway so pics are just so so...


I spent the day at the st. louis botanical gardens ( japanese garden area)yesterday and for any Jm loving mid westerners who haven't visited there are alot of jm there...some are stunning and VERY large.Although we have had killing frosts many still had leaves or at least partial leaves...some seemed virtually untouched by the cold night temps ( the ever red dissectums seemed un usually hardy) I was though disappointed that NONE were post taged and you had to sneak into the "forbidden" grass and mulched areas and search for tags many of which were missing ...Many were "in loving memory" of this or that person on one tag but the cutivar tag was GONE. In addition many were topped so you could see other stuff. This looked nice with some multi trunked trees with neat bark but with dissectums and some other looked stupid IMHO although that is personal taste and may well be a traditional "haircut " I thought they looked odd !!!If you plan to trim your JM's you might want to check out this place you may change your mind ;>) Finnally all the larger 20-30ft maples were all listed as simply palmatums I guess the lineage was lost or when they were planted was unimportant to them at that time or they were just plain seedlings but many were really nice and differnt, and I'd bet named cultivars. All in all, it was a superb , albiet flawed, display and I would suggest anyone near or traveling to sl. louis next spring summer or fall ( it's gonna be too late after next week ) to be sure to visit there ... it's quite impressive for the mid west ...David

Thanks David, I occasionally get out that way on travel, and if I can I'll try to make time to go to the gardens.

Would love to see the pics! Even goofy maples are lovely.

Laura

Don't you wonder who is in charge of it? Clearly it's missing a loving hand. I'm glad that you enjoyed your time there anyway.