Day 27, Monday, October 12 "The Botanical Garden Greenhouses"

Today, we began the day with work. David went to the university and I worked from home. In an earlier post, we told you about the Royal Botanical Garden which is just a few blocks from our flat. The first time we visited, we strolled through many areas, though certainly didn't cover it all.. Around 3:00 pm today, we put away work and headed up to the gardens. This time our destination was the greenhouses.

There are eight large glasshouses, which is what they call greenhouses. This one, the first one, was built in the 1800's. As you can see, it was actually a building with stone walls and very large windows. The roof has glass panels that are hinged and on a crank system so they could be opened and closed to keep the temperature at whatever setting was needed. Today, the cranks have a motor that drives them but the old hand cranks are still there. This greenhouse was built in the Victorian style of architecture.

On the walk up to the glasshouses are several plants called Monkey Puzzle. At first they look similar to a basic conifer tree... spruce or pine. But up close you see that it is very different. Its leaves are sharp pointed things that look more like the thick leaves of a succulent...like a Hen and Chicken plant.

You can see from this photo that even the trunk has sharp prickles on it. Apparently this is a common plant here. So much so, that there were large deposits of fossilized trees called Jet. It was mined, polished into a shiny, coal black material and made into jewelry . Queen Victoria made it popular since she began wearing all black when her husband died and never went back to normal clothes.











The entrances to the glasshouses are planted with very lovely groups of plants that grow commonly and plentifully around the area. You will recognize many, but not all.

By the way, you might notice that we look at little bulkier than in previous posts. No, it isn't all the scones we have been eating! It got a good deal colder in Scotland while we were in England so we are bundling up more this week,





The glasshouses each contain plants from different regions. So there is Tropical Palms, Orchids and Cycads, Ferns and Fossils, Rainforest, Arid lands...well you get the picture. Enjoy.

This one had a lot of plants that we find in our own gardens in Houston and the surrounding area. Of course, the Tropical Palm house looked like our normal everyday sites in Houston.

This one made us wonder how our little pond at home is doing. Jenel and Daniel are feeding the fish for us (as well as the dogs and cat).

We really enjoyed our stroll through the glasshouses and hope you have enjoyed some of the photos too. We stayed until just 10 minutes before they closed down. On the way in and out, there is a spectacular plant. Not for its blooms but for its foliage. Yep, that's one leaf! Have a wonderful day and we look forward to hearing from you.