Our tour of Morris Arboretum
Will woke up this morning and didn't really feel well. But by noon he decided that being lazy in the park didn't sound too bad. We arrived at the park at about 2pm, just in time to join the weekly tour of the gardens. Every time we have taken a tour we have been to a different section of the park. So even if you have taken a tour before they never seem to do the same tours twice. Just a warning, these pictures are with my phone, since this was so spur of the moment.
The tour starts near this sculpture, by the upper parking lot. We learned that this sculpture marks where John Morris' house use to sit.
This Weeping European Beech(it's a little under 200 years old) is nearing the end of it's life, which is a little sad. But seeing all of it's offspring surrounding it, it's nice to know that the tree will forever live on through them.
This is The Orange Balustrade. Lydia Morris wanted to create a small garden to show off reds and oranges.
Here are two memorial gardens. Created to honor two patrons of the park. I'm sorry I can't remember their names.
To the left of the memorial gardens is this beautiful fountain.
One of the things we love about the arboretum is the fact that they have all three varieties of Cedar trees. This one here is a Golden Atlas Cedar, this tree being just under 200 years old.
This Katsura tree comes from either China or Korea and was planted during the early 1900s. It is the signature tree of the arboretum. A lot of these trees do not have the multiple trunks. Something arborists are worried about is that this tree might strangle itself down the road. Fossils in from the area show that this tree was actually once native to North America long ago.
Here's another picture with Will up in the tree. As you can see this is a huge tree. It's hard to see but there is a small Japanese styled garden on the left, where the stones are.
Here are a few of the different bird houses that are on display till September 1st.
I think it's interesting the mix of traditional and modern art in the garden.
This is The Oak Allée. If you're not familiar with an allée it is basically a walkway or road bordered by rows of trees of a similar age of the same species.
About halfway down The Oak Allée there is this bench.
The view from the bench is the second of the three cedars. This is probably the most famous and well known of the cedars, the Cedar of Lebanon. This particular cedar comes from Turkey and was planted in 1944.
There are tons and tons of bird houses on The Oak Allée, but this one stuck out to me in particular.
The Oak Allée ends at this beautiful sitting area and another one of the sculptures in the garden.
Here's another view of that Cedar of Lebanon, from the Azalea Meadow.
Another one of the bird houses in the meadow.
These two statues are of John and Lydia Morris. Behind Lydia you can see a glimpse of the third cedar tree.
Here is the Kashmir Deodar Cedar from the Himalayas, planted in 1934.
This is Pennsylvania's State Tree, the Hemlock Spruce.
Here's another one of the Japanese styled gardens.
As you exit the Japanese garden you see this Dawn Redwood, that was planted in 1948. This tree was once thought to be extinct till it was rediscovered in China.
This is one of my favorite trees, it's a Tabletop Scotch Elm, grafted onto another type of elm(not sure what type) to give it some height. This particular tree being almost 200 years old.
Near my favorite elm tree, there is a swan pond. The two swan's names are Fauna & Flora. We found out they tolerate the ducks in the pond with them. But they hate geese, lol.
I couldn't find a tag on this tree, but I believe it's a Red Paper Bark Maple.
Around the corner there is this small log cabin built from Hemlock Spruce right along the Wissahickon Creek. Lydia use to spend a great deal of time around here. Something that we learned on the tour, the sparkly silver rocks that lines the banks and is common in this area is called Wissahickon Schist.
The last part of the tour was through the wisteria arbors. Though we didn't cover even half of the park.
A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in--what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.
-- Victor Hugo
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