October 3-26, 2021: Our Fall Trip to Florida
	September 17, 2021: Our Return to the Dallas Symphony
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It's a beautiful Sunday morning, and buoyed by our return to the Symphony last Friday, Fred and I have decided to go back to the Arboretum as well, and this is an excellent day to do it.

Getting to the Dallas Arboretum

We went to the Arboretum earlier this year during "Dallas Blooms!" and the fall is another time of year that we like to visit. There is usually an exhibit in the garden (the Christmas Carousels won't be set up until late November), and by late September the Pumpkin Festival is in full swing. The Dallas garden has been named by numerous horticultural magazines and organizations as one of the top five or ten in the United States, and we are fortunate to live near it. We have known for many years how beautiful the Arboretum is at almost every time of the year.

The Dallas Arboretum is not too far from where I live 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. When Fred and I go there from the house, the northern route is most direct. That's the route that we took today.

A few days ago I went online and made reservations for the timed entry process that is now part of the Arboretum's visiting procedures. Another requirement, of course, is that we be masked whenever we are inside any of the facilities, and masks are recommended in crowds at the entry plaza or elsewhere. That didn't happen often today, even though the Arboretum has begun relaxing the rules on the number of guests that can be in the gardens at any one time.

In this closer view, you can see the south end of White Rock Lake and you can pick out the bike trail that hugs the lake shore almost all the way around. We have not had our bikes out over at White Rock Lake for quite some time- mostly because Fred has taken his up to his house where he has more opportunity to use it during the week. At the south end is White Rock Lake Dam and spillway, which takes the overflow water and sends it under Garland Road to continue on down to the Trinity River.

The bike path used to cross the top of the dam, but for one reason or another, the bike path was rerouted some years 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.

Finally, in this close-up of the Arboretum itself, you can see most of the major features- including the parking area just off Garland Road, the new administrative buildings, the restaurant and gift shop (all right near the parking lot) and, off in the middle of the gardens, the DeGolyer house (the former residence of the family that donated the land for the Arboretum to the Arboretum Society).

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

One change that we are making today is that we are going to follow the guidelines on our entry tickets and enter via the Entry Plaza at the north end of the gardens- right near the relatively new Rory Meyers Children's Adventure Garden. This means that we'll be parking in the large, new parking garage on the other side of Garland Road. You can see it here- its the large structure near the top of the picture. Then we'll take the underground tunnel to get to the Entry Plaza.

Today we are just going to wander around mostly following a big circle. Last year, the Arboretum had established one-way routes to help implement social distancing, but they are no longer doing that. I won't try to mark our route on the aerial view below, but I will mark it to show where some of the major points of interest were.

The Rory Meyers Children's Adventure Garden

The Children’s Garden, a relatively new addition to the Arboretum, encompasses several galleries and areas, each designed to be age-specific, but not age-restrictive. In other words, while kids can do a lot of different things, and learn a lot in the process, adults won't be bored out of their skulls.

The Entry Plaza

When you park across Garland Road and come through the tunnel underneath to the north entry to the Arboretum, the Entry Plaza for the Children's Adventure Garden is right there, so we decided to stop here first. As you walk through the entry seen at left, you come to a circular area with a beautiful mosaic that is set into the concrete walk. Surrounding it is a misting system that is running on very hot days, and there are concrete ledges where visitors can sit and cool off.

One area of the Children's Garden is a winding walkway called "The Walk on the Wild Side". It is a discovery trail that includes switchbacks with tracks in the path along the way to help visitors guess which native animal or plant is hiding around the next turn. Here are a couple of pictures we took while on the trail:

A popular, centrally-located area of the Children's Garden is called "Pure Energy". Here, children (and quite a few adults) investigate how energy from the natural sources of wind, sun and water can be transformed into electricity for our use. An energy tower, shooting water pistols (that are aimed at mechanisms that will turn when hit) and sun blasters are additional features that teach these concepts.

This is an expansive area, so I took the time to make a panoramic picture of it:

Of all the rest of the pictures we took here in the Adventure Garden, here are the best of them:

This is a view of the learning area of "Pure Energy" taken from the patio of the Education Center.

The Texas Skyway is an elevated, 240-foot walk through the tree canopy, inviting visitors to discover the benefits of trees and learn about what lives in the treetops.

Some areas of the Children's Garden are simply refuges, and are much like other areas of the Arboretum:

Along the Paseo

From the earliest days of the Arboretum, the Paseo has been the centerpiece of the gardens. A broad walkway that runs from the Trammell Crow Entry Plaza all the way to the Entry Plaza for the Children's Garden (southwest to northeast), it was designed to give visitors access to the various areas of the garden that lie east and west of it. West of it are areas like the Color Garden, the Women's Garden, the Red Maple Rill, the Performance Lawn, and the two homes that were donated to the Arboretum- the DeGolyer Home and the Alex Camp House.

East of the Paseo are the All-American Gardens, the area where the Pumpkin Festival and Pumpkin Houses are usually located, the Frog Fountain and Crepe Myrtle Allee, and the Test Gardens.

For Fall, the entire walkway is lined with pumpkins and gourds, and the various fountains and islands are decorated with a Fall theme.

While most everything was in its familiar place, we did discover as we walked the Paseo that the Pumpkin Festival, including the Pumpkin Houses, seemed not to be set up, but we quickly discovered (via signage) that they had been moved to a larger area west of the Jonsson Color Garden, overlooking White Rock Lake. I suppose this will be a permanent change, and I expect the old area to eventually be redeveloped into another named garden area.

There are actually two "demonstration garden" areas at the Arboretum that are of interest to home gardeners, as they both showcase plants and flowers for North Texas. The All-American Selections Trial Garden near the Trammell Crow Entry Plaza showcases tried and true plants and flowers for our climate.

Further along the Paseo, northeast of the Crepe Myrtle Allee, are the Test Gardens, where the Arboretum evaluates varieties and colors of various plants and flowers with a view towards including them in the Gardens. Fred always likes to stop here to see what new varieties of his favorite plants the Arboretum might be testing. He uses this knowledge to help determine if there are some new plants that might do well at his own house.

Aside from that, the Test Beds are always quite beautiful and among the most colorful areas of the whole Arboretum, as you will easily see if you click on the thumbnails below to look at some of the pictures we took here:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

From the Test Beds, we usually go by the Toad Fountain and then get back to the Paseo via the Crepe Myrtle Allee. Sweeping crepe myrtle trees enclose a stone walkway to create a magnificent walkway/garden. This natural tunnel leads visitors from the Paseo to the popular toad fountain feature, "Toad Corner."

We continued along the Paseo all the way to the Trammell Crow Entry Plaza, admiring what the Arboretum had done to decorate for Fall.

This is one of the beautifully decorated fountain islands along the Paseo. This one is at the spot where the Crepe Myrtle Allee meets the Paseo.

From Spring to Fall, the Arboretum is a very, very popular place for young Hispanic girls to have their quincenera pictures taken, and you can almost always see them and their professional photographers scouting garden locations.

A Tasteful Place and Three Sisters Lagoon

Another very new part of the Arboretum, located just southwest of the Trammel Crow Plaza, is A Tasteful Place.

This 3.5-acre, ornamental garden, pavilion and kitchen is inspired by the movement toward growing and eating fresh, sustainable, locally-grown food. In the picture at left, the pavilion is at left and the tasting venue is in the background up those steps.

The actual beds in this garden area are all of herbs, vegetables, and other edibles. You can see White Rock Lake in the background, and a semi-circular observation pavilion that borders the garden opposite. The Three Sisters Lagoon is at right.

Here are two more pictures we took today in A Tasteful Place:

In this picture, we can see the southern half of A Tasteful Place. Not every plant here is an edible; there are some hedges and things to separate garden areas.

Just to the northeast of A Tasteful Place is another new area- the Three Sisters Lagoon. A walkway leads from A Tasteful Place to the Jonsson Color Garden and this year's home of the Pumpkin Festival.

Autumn at the Arboretum

One of the highlights of the year at the Arboretum is the annual "Autumn at the Arboretum" event, and the centerpiece of that event is the Pumpkin Festival. Usually, this event is held in the Pecan Grove, in the middle of the gardens just east of the Paseo.

I am not sure if it is to be a permanent move, but this year, the event is being held in an area west of the Jonsson Color Garden instead of in the Pecan Grove. There is certainly more room here, and the area is much more open, but it has been in the Pecan Grove as long as I can remember.

Click on the Image Above to View the Slideshow

This afternoon, there were quite a few people here; it is a place for families and kids, as you'll see in our pictures.

This year, there are the usual pumpkin houses, the gourd displays, and the maze for kids (made our of hay bales so no little kid can actually get lost or be out of sight of mom and dad). But there is also a display called "Insect Encounter", a series of larger-than-life insect sculptures. In our pictures, you should be able to find a dragonfly, a monarch butterfly, ladybugs, ants, and bees.

I have a baker's dozen pictures to show you here, so with that many a slideshow is appropriate. Click on the image at left to open the show, and then use the arrows in the lower corners of each image to move from one to another. The index numbers in the upper left of each image will show you where you are in the show.

Elsewhere in the Arboretum

We'd come to the Arboretum today mostly to see the Autumn Festival, but as we were making a big circle through the gardens (as we usually do) from the Autumn Festival area we continued on through the gardens on the White Rock Lake side of the Paseo.

From the pumpkin village, we got back on the walkway around the north side of the Jonsson Color Garden. Heading northeast took us to one of the entrances to A Woman's Garden.

This is one of the named gardens, and guests’ favorite aspects of this garden are the sculpture, the vista across the infinity pool and the flowing water in the fountains and features. You can see the infinity pool at left in my view looking the way we are headed- northeast.

The walk from A Woman's Garden leads through a beautiful shady area (seen at right) to one of the two catchment pools in this area of the gardens. There is one at the bottom of a short artificial watercourse the runs from the Paseo down the north side of A Woman's Garden, and another at the bottom of the Red Maple Rill. This particular pool has koi in it, and the shady area around it is a favorite for everyone who comes through this area of the Arboretum.

Here are a picture of this pool, and a movie you can watch of it:

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We made our way back up towards the Paseo, coming out there at the Clements Magnolia Glade (or, rather, the top of it where the little artificial stream we were just at the bottom of begins). We found that since we passed by here earlier, a musician was performing. Below are a picture of the glade and a movie of the performer:

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From the Paseo, we walked past the Alex Camp House to the Lay Family Garden. Here there is a koi pond that is a favorite for kids:

To get back to where we entered the Arboretum, there is a walkway that leads behind an artificial waterfall in the Lay Family Garden, and we always like to take that route. Here's a picture and a movie of the waterfall:

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We were back at the Arboretum entry after a neat afternoon walking through the gardens. Coming here is always a fan favorite, and our membership is well worth it.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	October 3-26, 2021: Our Fall Trip to Florida
	September 17, 2021: Our Return to the Dallas Symphony
	Return to the Index for 2021