Spring at MoBot

I had an opportunity to spend a few hours alone in a sea of strangers at the Missouri Botanical Gardens and couldn't have felt more at home. Spring is a great time to visit the garden* and the surroundings were the very makings of a Monet painting.

If you haven't had the opportunity, this is an easily accessed garden with a little something for everyone. The azaleas, crabapples, and dogwoods were in full bloom. The tulips were finishing up; cherry blossoms showed only a hint of what I suspect was a glorious show; and the irises were just teasing at what was to come.

I only wish I could go there more often or lived closer.

Painters in the Azalea garden.

Conifer garden

Lamprocapnos spectabilis (Bleeding heart)

Red and white Tulips.

Pink flowering dogwood framing up the lake in the Japanese garden.

"Garden of pure, clear harmony and peace"

Japanese garden

*Full disclosure: I'm completely biased about visiting the MotBot garden. I've visited in the dead of winter to look at buds and bark and had just as much fun as I did this Spring. Oh, and the only gift to me on this trip was from my husband. It was the gift of a few hours of peace and quiet to myself in a garden. All photos were taken with my iPhone (also, not a gift).