1,014 Photos Later

It was a day full of sunshine, plants and gardens. I did get a rewarding "plant fix" on my first day of three in Michigan where I plan to visit many gardens and see as many plants as possible. I started the day at Walters Gardens, Inc. today and had a great visit with Hans Hansen who is a very well known, young breeder there. Hans can be seen in the second photo down with one of his many introductions: Hibiscus 'Perfect Storm'. I enjoyed the trial gardens as well. My older daughter is along for the trip and enjoys seeing plants too! We next went to Mast Young Plants in Grand Rapids, MI which has an awesome trial garden (see below). I had visited many years ago and was equally impressed with their displays today. Prior to arriving here though, I did a presentation via phone on butterfly gardening for a UW-Extension update. Interesting way to present from my car with laptop and phone! After Mast Young Plants, we then headed to Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park for a fun visit and to stretch our legs. We enjoyed the children's garden, new Japanese garden and conservatories for sure. The last two destinations were on the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing. The 4H Childrens Garden was as spectacular as always and the extensive 14 acre trials around that portion of campus were heavily photographed by me as well. Tired and getting ready for day #2 (posting tomorrow night too).