Sorry for posting again about gardens, but I guess spring is just that time of year when we tend to visit them. This week I joined some fellow photographers on a short field trip to the Rotary Botanical Gardens in Janesville, WI. According to their literature, this garden is “a 20-acre, non-profit botanic showcase with over 24 different garden styles and 4,000 varieties of plants.”
My wife joined me and we started our tour in the Japanese Garden, a very serene, contemplative setting. Small streams added the soft sound of trickling water to the ferns, flowers and trees. Bridges and boardwalks offered views of the adjacent ponds. Since it was a weekday, it wasn’t crowded, which not only made it more peaceful, but also made it easier to get photographs without too many people in the way.
Although we had a map of the grounds, after we left the Japanese Garden we mostly wandered around at random. I didn’t keep track of the specific gardens we were viewing. My eyes just moved from one colorful blossom to the next. One non-flowering item that caught my attention was a variegated Norway Maple. Norway Maples are very common but I don’t recall ever seeing a variegated one. The weather forecast was iffy but rain didn’t arrive until much later in the day so we had a relaxing and enjoyable garden walk.
As you can see in the gallery below, the Rotary Botanical Gardens is a beautiful place to visit.