Northern Plains Botanical Gardens

We are now in St.Paul, Minneapolis. A northwestern cold front moved through in the past twenty-four hours and it is feeling like fall is fast arriving. In  the park we stayed at, in Fargo, many squirrels were dashing around with acorns in their mouths. That is also a sure sign that we are moving into the next season. It is time for John and I to head south. The botanical garden which we visited in Fargo still has a fair number of flowers in bloom. It is a small garden, taken care of by one man. In that small botanical garden there is a woodland section, a butterfly garden, a vegetable garden to feed the hungry of the community, and a garden with plants from "A to Z". The latter garden is a novel idea, and I think that all the plants representing the letters of the alphabet were there. Maybe there was a little cheating with the letter x. That letter was represented with xerescape plants, that is a category of plants which are drought resistant. An end of the summer flower which I like are gladiolas, and there is a patch of them in the garden.

I also discovered a castor bean plant in the garden which is in bloom. I don't think I have seen that plant before. Its leaves and flowers are quite beautiful!

We will be in St. Paul for a week visiting with our niece Kathy, her husband Doug and their three children. After that we will head south to St.Louis.  I  will end this posting with one more picture from the garden.