April 4, 2010: A Gathering at Barbara Reynolds' House
	March 27, 2010: Josh Turner Concert at Billy Bob's Texas
	Return to Index for 2010

Getting to the Dallas Arboretum

Today, Fred and I have decided to go over to see the "Dallas Blooms!" spring event at the Arboretum. We usually go with Steve and Mario, but they are busy today.

The Dallas Arboretum is not too far from where I live over on Inwood- I'd guess about six or seven miles as the crow flies (see the map opposite)- but you can't get there as the crow flies because White Rock Lake is in the way. So you can either go through town and wind your way around the south end of the lake or you can take Mockingbird over around the north side of the lake. Today, we headed over to Steve's house first to pick them up, which is just a jog up Audelia from Mockingbird, and then back down Buckner Boulevard to Garland Road and the Arboretum.

The bike path used to cross the top of the dam, but for one reason or another, the bike path was rerouted a year ago, and now it goes through some parkland and playing fields south of the dam, across the spillway, up Garland Road for a ways, and then back north along the lake shore.

You can also see a closer view of the Arboretum in this picture, and can begin to pick out some of the pathways through the gardens.

You can also see the maze of pathways that criss-cross the gardens.

Wandering Through the Arboretum

First, I want to orient you to our path through the gardens today. Then we can take a look at the pictures that we took in each major area of the gardens.

Our Route Through the Arboretum

 
On the Arboretum map below, I've marked our approximate route through the gardens today, and I've also marked the stops where we took pictures. This may help you follow us on our visit.

The Main Lawn (1)

 
From the entry plaza, we walked down across the bridge at the end of the fern dell, turned left to walk around the section of demonstration gardens and then came to the beginning of the main lawn. From this point, to our left are the large plantings of azaleas; they usually put on a spectacular show, although this year they bloomed a bit early, and so many of them are just a bit past their prime. I took a picture of Fred in the trees to the left of the path with the main lawn in the background, and you can see that picture here.

On the right side of the path (the inside of the walkway) were beautiful beds of red and yellow tulips that were putting on quite a show, and I took some pictures of them. To see the full size pictures, just click on the individual thumbnail images at right.

The Main Lawn (1)

This movie shows you the scene here at Dallas Blooms as we walk around the western portion of the main lawn. The theme here is red and yellow tulips.

Fred took some great pictures of the tulips and other flowers here in this part of the main lawn, and you can have a look at them if you click on the thumbnails below:

The Main Lawn (2)

 
As we continued alongside the main lawn we came to the top of it. Here, there was a different tulip color scheme- purple, pink, yellow and white.

The Main Lawn (2)
Near the DeGolyer Home

This movie shows the part of the main lawn that adjoins the patio of the old DeGolyer home. It was quite busy today. I also took a still picture of this area, and you can look at it here.

The Women's Garden (3)

 
The Women's Garden is a relatively new section of the Arboretum, and we always visit it because of the nice stairstepped water feature that it has. There is also an infinity pool, and beside it a large sculpture looking out through a doorway. Near the Women's Garden there is another new area with numerous little water features and waterfalls. There are also two artificial streams, this one wandering through some beautiful Japanese Maples. Fred found a local denizen beside one of the small pools, and he used his most extreme zoom to get a closeup of it, and you should look at that picture here.

The McCaslan Sunken Garden (4)

 

The McCaslan Sunken Garden has been here for some time, and we usually walk through it on our way to the back part of the Arboretum. Today, there were all kinds of flowers blooming here. Click on the thumbnail images at right and you can have a look at some of them.

The Martin Rutchik Concert Stage and Lawn (5)

 

The Performance Stage (5)

The performance stage is a bandshell and picnic site. On special occasions, like Dallas Blooms, one group or another will be performing while patrons sit on the lawn and watch or have a picnic. This movie shows a small part of today's performance and some of the crowd listening and enjoying the music.

The Lay Ornamental Garden (6)

 
What I call the "back area of the Arboretum" is actually the Lay Ornamental Garden, and its primary feature are the "water walls", which are curtains of water that cascade from a wisteria-covered arbor into catchments. It is a great place to sit and relax with the sound of the falling water in the background. There were also lots of flowers back here as part of Dallas Blooms, and Fred took some very good pictures. Click on the thumbnail images below to have a look at them:

The Central Walkway (7)

 
When we left the Lay Garden, we walked out to the Camp House (the white building on the Arboretum Map), and then began our walk down the main walkway through the garden towards the entrance. All along the walkway everything was a riot of color, and we stopped frequently to take pictures. Along the way, there was a display for the kids- this one of a huge, flower-bedecked bull. It was the Story of Ferdinand, about a bull in Spain that loved to smell flowers. One day, while men from Madrid were looking for bulls for the bullfights, they happened on Ferdinand just as the bull was stung by a bee. Because of the sting, the bull huffed and puffed and ran around, and the men thought he would be ideal. He was taken to Madrid. On the day of the bullfight, Ferdinand found himself in a ring into which garlands and flowers had been tossed, and all Ferdinand would do is sit and smell them. Disappointed, the men eventually took Ferdinand back to the countryside. Corny, I know, but maybe kids like it.

Click on the Image Above to View the Slideshow

The flowers were so beautiful and the displays so extravagant that it was hard to pick and choose the pictures to include here, so I've perhaps included more than necessary, but then I've put them in a slideshow so you can look at them quickly. So have a go at the slideshow and look at some of the amazing displays at "Dallas Blooms!"

To view the slideshow, just click on the image at left and I will open the slideshow in a new window. In the slideshow, you can use the little arrows in the lower corners of each image to move from one to the next, and the index numbers in the upper left of each image will tell you where you are in the series. When you are finished looking at the pictures, just close the popup window.

The Trial Garden (8)

 

The Trial Garden

The trial garden is an area near the entrance where the Arboretum tests out new plants or showcases interesting ones. Today, the tulip theme continues, but here are small stands of every color tulip in the Arboretum. I made a movie walking along by these tulips so you can see the variety of colors we encountered today.

With that movie, our visit to Dallas Blooms! was complete, and we headed home.

You can use the links below to continue to the album page for different day.

	April 4, 2010: A Gathering at Barbara Reynolds' House
	March 27, 2010: Josh Turner Concert at Billy Bob's Texas
	Return to Index for 2010