During the second week of our vacation we visited the Martin Cardenas Botanical Garden, which our trufi passes every Sunday on the way to and from church.

The garden covers (we think) somewhere between 30 and 40 acres, and when it first opened it must have been absolutely gorgeous.  Unfortunately like most everything here it is not well maintained.  They don't quite keep ahead of the weeds, some of the "water works" (fountains, reflection pool, etc.) aren't functioning, the barbecue area is unusable, and so on.  It's sad.  We can't figure out how a country that has so much in the way of natural resources can be so poor, but that's a political issue we shouldn't and won't discuss.  As to the garden - as with most of life - you can find beauty if you're looking for it, and we found quite a lot.

This is a planter just inside the front gate (just past the above sign) . . . 

. . . and this orange flowering tree was just past the planter.  I asked Sister Norman if she knew what kind of tree it is and she said it's a jacaranda, but I just can't quite accept that.  The leaves AND the flowers are all wrong, as you can see in the second picture.

These are the blossoms.  I LOVE THIS TREE.  I want one at home, so somehow before we leave I have to find out what it is.

Jacaranda are extremely plentiful - we have them on the temple grounds and there were lots of them in the botanical garden (see below).  In the summer when they have all their foliage, they must make the park extra beautiful.

This is not jacaranda but rather (as you can see if you can open this to full-size) bougainvillea which is in the process of taking over this tree.  I don't know what the host tree is, unfortunately.  Most of the little signs they originally had everywhere to identify the different plants and
trees are either gone or illegible.

Believe it or not, this is a plain-old-fashioned alfalfa plant - just like the alfalfa my dad planted on our ranch as a hay crop.  I'm not really sure why it is here, but I was glad to see it anyway.

This is one of their stands of bamboo.

 

This is the reflection pool I mentioned earlier . . . wish we could have seen it as originally planned. 

Now we get to the flowers . . . I think this flower (and the yellow one that follows) are amaryllis, right?  I need Vanessa here to tell me what everything is!

I'm calling this bush "bleeding heart" for lack of better knowledge, because I know there is a flower by that name that looks very much like this.

Beautiful bronze daisies . . . 

. . .  and a heart-shaped planter full of white and lavender daisies
(at least they looked like daisies to me.)

We saw quite a few iris plants but only three were blooming.  I want to go back in October or November, whenever it starts raining regularly, and see if the rest of them are open.  They do have the same wonderful fragrance as our iris at home.

This is lavender, right?  I know I should recognize it, but if I've guessed wrong, 

somebody tell me what it really is. 

We thought this planter was interesting.  Can you see that the iron thing on the top is a plow, attached to what looks like the front of a bicycle?  I would like to know if (and how) this thing truly can be used to plow the ground.

This plant looks like a calla lily but it's orange . . . is that just another variety of calla?

I have no idea what this is, but I love the color. 

This is actually a very slender, fragile looking tree with these hanging fuschia-colored flowers.  No idea what it is, but it's pretty.  And of course everyone knows a daisy on sight.

 

                                             

Now the next several pictures are just "vistas" of the garden from different angles . . . 

You can see from that last picture how big the place really is.  This is looking back toward the entrance. There were many students at the garden, every age from kindergarten to college. I expect the younger ones were on field trips and the others were just looking for a quiet place to be with their boyfriends (or girlfriends, as the case may be.)  The garden is located near a large military building of some sort, also some light industry AND a busy interchange (can't call it a freeway because it isn't, but there is an underpass and an overpass and constant traffic), yet it is amazingly tranquil. There are wooden benches scattered here and there (several without seats, unfortunately), and we sat on one for a while just listening to the birds and enjoying the light breeze, the greenness and the relative quiet. It was a lovely "field trip" for us!

That's all for now.  Have a beautiful week and vayan con Dios . . .