Garvan Gardens

Today the WINs visited Garvan Woodland Gardens in Hot Springs. Ron and I had a couple of errands to run first and actually didn't arrive at the gardens until the rest were leaving. That wasn't because they are fast, but we are just incredibly slow.

In 1985 Verna C. Garvan donated 210 acres to the University of Arkansas School of Architecture. They have done an amazing job fulfilling her vision of an internationally respected botanical garden. If you're bored by flowers, you may as well stop reading this now, but I loved it!


As soon as we entered the garden, the azaleas and water features caught our eye.



Although these might look like koi, they're not fooling me. When the garden employee threw in a handful of food, they turned into piranha in a feeding frenzy.



Here is Ron on the Canopy Bridge. I must admit I didn't realize why 'Canopy' until I looked at this picture and saw it must refer to being in the tree canopy. It is a lovely bridge with all the graceful curving wood.



I can only imagine what the masses of tulips looked like at their peak, but there were some late bloomers. This one looked like no tulip I had ever seen.






















Another unusual tulip - both in form and color.











Around each turn was a lovely woodland scene.



And let's not forget the azaleas.



I was really surprised to see some camellias blooming.





















And for the purist, there were also more traditional tulips.