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NC arboretum
By Carrie | July 17, 2008
I have a lot of updating to do. This past weekend, we spent in the NC mountains where our main objective was to attend the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games (more on that later).
On Sunday we were getting on the Blue Ridge Parkway and just happened upon the NC Arboretum, so we decided to check it out.
A quick exploration of the area around the welcome center found these extremely hot orange flowers:

Oak decided we needed to see the greenhouse. Of course, it was a hike to get there, and we see that it’s only open for tours during the week from 9-5. Here’s Oak near the greenhouse grounds:

On the walk back to the visitors center, it started to rain. Luckily it didn’t last too long, but it was definitely in an on again/off again cycle. It let up enough for us to explore the other gardens near the visitor’s center. The bonsai exhibit was particularly interesting. I never realized that bonsai actually are miniature trees, not a special breed of tree. You could actually look at these plants and imagine immersing yourself in these tiny little forests. They are really quite amazing in person.

I’ve got some more photos up on flickr.
