A corner of the gardens

A good lunch is made better by a beautiful place to eat. So many museum staff and guests use this one particular picnic table beneath the spreading bows of a huge double trunked live oak that we like to make this area special. With the ‘nice weather’ season about to start, we decided to work on this area as our prelude to the rest of the Historic Tree Grove end of summer tasks.

On Friday we added border of coral colored impatiens along with some blue daze, indigo spires salvia and a few donated pink begonias. These all mix in nicely with the bedding plants that include flax lily, African iris, ferns, gingers, coleus and artemisia.

The last addition for the day was a frilly species of hibiscus commonly known as Japanese lantern (Hibiscus schizopetalus). This quirkily botanical-named hibiscus is still young but produces gorgeous and unlikely looking blooms.

The picnic area can be found beneath the Dr. Richard T. Bowers Sand Live Oak in the Historic Tree Grove at MOSI. Next time you visit the museum we invite you to bring your lunch outside and watch the butterflies play.

We’ll be doing lots of work in the outside gardens for the next few weeks. Please feel free to ask us your questions or tell us what you like about the gardens.