Ancient Mulberry at Ginter Gardens

Those of you who have been to Ginter Gardens in Richmond, VA, know this tree. It is an old mulberry, at the Childrens Garden- go and pay your respects this venerable life form!

Ginter Gardens

Ginter Gardens
I have been to Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens in Richmond more than 100 times. If you are in the Richmond area, it is certainly worth a visit. It is especially nice on a cool gray day to take a walk inside the conservatory. But today I did something I had never done there before- I used the library there. I love libraries and I love gardens, so you can imagine what a pleasure it was to work on a project in the library. I am sure that there are more extensive botanical libraries than this one, but it is new, nice, comfortable and the librarian was very helpful (plus it is not far from my home). I found the botanicals and herbals I was looking for, along with a great book on the botanical and zoological art work of William Bartram (son of the American botanist and plantsman John Bartram of colonial Philadelphia) and other neat books on colonial gardens (a recent interest of mine). I intend to go back, very soon, to look up more information on colonial gardens, medicinal/dyeing/cooking herbs, home orchards, and native plants. Above are a few photos from the garden today, outdoors and a few in the conservatory (pansies/violas, paphiopedalum orchid, spiral ginger, clivia). I will write a full field trip report on it sometime soon!
Happy Gardening!