Gotta Garden

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Garden Trips: Riverbanks Zoo and Garden

Located in Columbia, South Carolina, Riverbanks Zoo & Garden is a fun place to spend an afternoon. The site of the previous SCMMGA symposium I had attended, I glanced around while there but didn't really explore it like I wanted. This time, we concentrated just on the garden.

Entering through a shady area, Bloodroot was blooming:


An unidentified iris was bright:

Wish your garden looked like this?


What would a garden be without fountains?


Great pot, although what's in it isn't alive:


You can see where they're going:


This pot is definitely wild:



A very favorite and very fragrant Clematis Armandii...here at Riverbanks was where I first smelled this clematis:



Closer....can you...almost...smell it??



Something I had never seen before...a variegated gardenia:



Mahonia, looking very fine:


Hellebores surrounding a crepe/crape myrtle:


A most colorful prickly pear:


On our way out, the ultimate hanging basket (huge, if you can't tell):


That's all for now. Tomorrow, assuming my jury duty is over, we'll take a very fun stroll through a very nice nursery.

10 comments:

Annie in Austin said...

This looks like a wonderful place, Gotta Garden. I've been in South Carolina but not to Columbia - never knew it had something like this.

But it's so dangerous to look at your photos - I want one of everything, including the Clematis armandii!

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

RUTH said...

A lovely look round the gardens. Although most of the plants we can grow in the UK I've never heard of the Bloodroot.

Yolanda Elizabet Heuzen said...

That pot, gaaaaaaaa, that's not wild, it's just plain ugly. :-)

Except for the prickly pear and that pot, this garden looks absolutely lovely.

And that last pic? Now that is what I call a hanging basket. ;-)

BTW Today's special on Bliss: pics of cute kitties, and lots of them, and inbetween, some words. ;-p

Unknown said...

Great pictures! I assume that the plants around the "wild pot" are some kind of Swiss Chard? I wish I could find some that color for my place!

Annie in Austin said...

Since this is a zoo, I think the pot kind of looks at home - and visiting children probably love it.
GottaGarden, do you think the plant Kim likes could be a purple -leaved bergenia?

Annie

kate said...

The hanging pot is incredible. When I saw the bloodroot, I had an incredible pang of wanting spring here. The clematis is gorgeous and I would like one of those. On second thought, I'd also like a variegated gardenia.

Sisah said...

Thank you for that tour around, I enjoyed it very much and would like to have a trip there myself. It is a bit too far away though.
For my northern german eyes quite unsusal plant mixtures/companions: small palm trees amongst helleborus. And that giraffe patterned pot is really ugly but I still like it!

Gotta Garden said...

Oh Annie, you should try it! The fragrance is outstanding...although it is a rather big clematis...lol! I'm hoping mine will climb up and cover the deck stairs' railing...I guess I won't think about if the stairs need repairing or anything!

Ruth, maybe you know it by its proper name, Sanguinaria canadensis? It's rather sweet looking, I think, but not especially long lasting.

Hi YE: Lol! It's rather...striking, I suppose. My sister went up and felt it and said it was like Linoleum...though, why anyone would put that on their floor, I can't imagine! I guess, if nothing else, it is attention getting.

Hi b_s girl: I went back through the pictures and I do have one (which I'll try to post a quick picture of for you) that might be it?? The sign says: Brassica oleracea (Acephala Group) 'Redbor'...Ornamental Kale

Lol, Annie! Good point...I certainly had never seen anything quite like it! After the lecture on container gardening (the day before), I suppose I was on the alert for 'unusual' groups! Lol! Better container pictures when I get the Woodley's stuff up...I really am going to! You know, Annie, maybe? Things weren't labeled quite as well as I would have liked...but when I put the picture up for blackswamp_girl, maybe she'll let me know if that's the one. Thanks for the comments...your thoughts always welcome and looked forward to!

Hi Kate! I hope spring is near...I'll be checking your blog and will celebrate its arrival with you! Oh, I do love fragrant plants! The gardenia was so eye-catching, I read the label twice! It looks nothing like traditional gardenias...no glossy leaves! And, then, it turns out, my sister has one, too! Lucky her! I'm thinking it must be difficult, although I don't know...it looked like the leaves were crisping up...we saw another one in a container with sun plants...and it didn't look happy at all. But, I'm with you...what a neat plant (and even with all that, if I came across one, I'd have to try it!)

Hi Sisah: It's interesting, isn't it, to see what other folks do! I'm guessing the crepe/crape myrtle provides enough shade (once it gets its leaves) for the hellebores...but, I agree that palm was wild (SC is the palmetto state)...now that I think of it, I remember Barry Glick saying hellebores could take much more sun (although they would look awful)...and that they increased rapidly with the sun...maybe that accounts for it! Lol! See, you noticed the giraffe pattern...I'm guessing Annie is right...it's for the kids!

Thank you all! I appreciate so much hearing from you!

lisa said...

Thanks for that arisaema pic...I actually grew that sucessfully up here in zone 4, but lost it when I had to move the garden it was in-better buy another!

Gotta Garden said...

Hi Lisa: Sorry I missed you! Interesting, aren't they? Now, I'm wising I had purchased one I saw yesterday...shoulda, woulda, coulda!

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