I did visit Olbrich Botanical Garden, littlebin! And it was my favorite of the day but only because it was bigger than Allen Centenial Gardens. First off---peonies LOVE Wisconsin! I've never seen such huge peonies--shrubs and blooms both! Visited 4 places today with blooming peonies and all were huge. I could've spent hours at either Olbrich or Allen Centenial Gardens. Both had beautiful peonies in bloom amongst other perennials and annuals as well as lots of trees. Both places had types of smaller blooming trees that smelled amazing--definitely adding to my garden if the zone gods are kind and allow them to grow in zone 4b. First one was a fringe tree that was blooming at ACG, could smell it across the entire garden. I was a bit disappointed at first that they didn't have a seating area really close to it but I don't think they would ever get people to leave if they did!
The other that was at OBG was aa Abelia Mosanensis Caprifoliaceae. I smelled that one as soon as I walked through the doors out to the garden. I actually sat down on a bench to write and thank Tracey for passing info on these amazing gardens right there within smelling distance. It was a beautiful morning, beautiful smells, beautiful flowers, birds chirping; probably would've sat there for the rest of the day if the peonies had been within sight!
The other peony garden Tracey passed to me was the West Madison Agricultural Research Garden. That was the first place I went this morning, mainly because it was open the earliest and I wanted to hit everything in the Madison area in a single day. They have 50 varieties that have been in place 6-7 years, arrayed in 2 huge beds of only peonies. While the layouts of the botanical gardens were more pleasing to the eye the peonies at the Research Garden were every bit as gorgeous! They also had several other beds of different flowers, spent quite a bit of time looking at the various baptistias, never knew there were so many varieties with so many different flower colors. They also had some very pretty mixed gardens on the grounds as well.
The last place I stopped was the Heard Museum, they have an Anderson Itoh Memorial Garden. The flowers here were beautiful but the garden layout isn't as visitor friendly, can't get close enough to the flowers! They do supply a handout with the varieties mapped but it was raining pretty good while I was there and I didn't find one until after I'd viewed the flowers and was soaked!
Okay, I'm going to close this post and do a 2nd one with just peony and garden pics. I'm not going to label them right now, I did take pics of labels but my old eyes don't appreciate the tiny screen. I'll put labels on once I'm home if anyone wants to know a variety. Hope you all enjoy them!
