Please note: I’ve changed the settings with this group of photos, where you can click the image link below each one and open it full size in a new window.
There are different climate gardens at Meijer Gardens. The arid garden has many types of cacti and other desert plants. This one caught my eye as it is in bloom.
Its nearby fuzzy cousin is not in bloom.
Lots of big velvety leaves. I think the new growth looks like hands open to the sunshine.
These plants look like leathery old folks to me.
The next photos are from the carnivorous plants area. Soggy wet everywhere, just like they like it.
Not sure if you can see the trapping hairs on the leaves of this one…
These look like elf slippers to me. They grow on the ground or in the air…
This is an orange tree, but the variety produces very small oranges.
“Dancer Looking at the Sole of Her Right Foot,” by Edgar Degas. Made of bronze, the dimensions are 18.5 x 10.5 x 8 inches.
This looks a lot like a maidenhair fern — on steroids! This is a tropical fern, where every plant grows big (or seems like it.)
Looking up in the main tropical section of the gardens. This was the first part of this wondrous place that was built in the beginning. The vine has been here since then and travels along the top. The next photo shows the red blossoms closer.
You know those “corn plants” you can buy at the big box stores? In their natural tropical environment they grow giant roots like this that suck water out of the rivers and lakes. Hard to see scale here but the roots must be 5-6 feet long and probably 7″ or more across.
The next one is an amazing collection of Dale Chihuly glass that graces the ceiling of the cafe. I took this one with my cell-phone.
The last picture is one that should have gone with part 1, but I forgot about it as it was on my cell-phone. “Cabin Creek,” is a sculpture by Deborah Butterfield. Made of bronze, its dimensions are 88 x 122.5 x 30.5 inches.
Tao Talk 
Great photographs Li and I especially like those elf slippers.
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Thank you, Jim, glad you liked them.
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I can see the hairs on that carnivorous plant. I sent an email to you about enlarging photos in your blog.
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Ken, thank you for the email. I tried to follow the instructions and have placed an image link under each photo, where you can open it in a new window if you click on it. I sent you an email back also.
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There you go. Now your readers can see the finer details, if they want.
Something to consider is to resize your photos so as to use less of your allotted WP storage space. If you reduce your height and width by 50%, you’ll have a file that’s quarter-size. An image that’s 25% for both dimensions will save you a lot more, and you’ll still have a picture that’s larger than the browser window. You can resize (scale) with GIMP. (Just remember to save with a slightly different filename, so you still have the original.)
Here’s a minor effect I did on one of your hungry plants:
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Thank you, Ken! I am starting to get worried about WP storage space, so your advice is helpful. Can it be resized once added to WP or does it have to be done beforehand? Whatever you did to the picture looks fabulous 🙂 I will try to install GIMP soon, especially if I’m going to keep using the other camera.
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Resize before hand. Let me know when you install GIMP, and I I’ll send some tips your way.
With all the photos I have at WP, I think I have less than 150mb, because I resize them before upload. I also increase the compression (a setting when saving the new image file), but not enough to affect quality, while still reducing the file size even further.
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OK Ken. I was following along until you got to the compression part lol Will let you know when I install it.
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A wonderful visual tour of the place. Thanks Li
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Glad you enjoyed it Sadje 🙂
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It was great.
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🙂
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👍
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lovely photos and narrative. I spotted the red blooms but they did not look like the flowers from my post. the leaves are different and the flower petals too close together. though I could be wrong and this is a different cultivated species of it. these gardens are amazing! so glad you had the chance to visit at leisure.
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OK, just wondered. Not sure I ever knew the name of the vines there and will have to look for a sign or ask a worker what they are.
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it would be interesting to know what it is for sure, I know the Kew gardens in London have some in their tropical conservatory. good luck!
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Kew Gardens is on my bucket list! I’ve been to the Chicago Botanic Gardens and the Phoenix Botanic Gardens and loved both of them. Meijer Gardens is small potatoes compared to them, but it is constantly expanding.
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oh you will be amazed! I recently visited Melbourne Botanic and that was a grand experience, so many plants and flowers not found elsewhere on earth. the rose garden was just coming into bloom.
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❤
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I love the carnivorous plants. They have a different look on them…maybe that is hunger.
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They seemed happy and healthy that’s for sure. I didn’t see any bugs around. I wonder what they feed them?
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I had one before…ordered it and loved it. I was a kid and my mom freaked out lol. It would catch flies and I would feed it small bugs.
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I watched this show the other night on netflix “Strange and Weird Things” (something like that) which travels the globe and investigates weird natural phenomena. This one they found a symbiotic relationship between a giant pitcher plant (not that giant — it looked like about a foot) and a small bat. The bat uses the plant as a cave of sorts and the guano feeds the plant. Mother Nature is quite amazing to me!
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That is totally interesting. That is kinda like the Clown Fish and Anemones that benefit each other. I love things like that.
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wow- cool !
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