Brookside Gardens after a Rain

Before and after our session with the butterflies in the conservatory last week, I took short walks around a very wet Brookside Gardens. The stream near the entrance was flowing over boulders that have been added in past few years to control erosion. I took a picture up and down stream from the bridge. The vegetation has increased dramatically over the past month.

A squirrel enjoyed a nut on a low pine branch.

The old water garden has matured into a rain garden. I like the low growing plants spilling over the rocks.

The winds had blown a small branch of leaves out of a tulip poplar tree and into the parking lot.

There were wildflowers blooming along the boardwalk between the conservatory and the nature center.

My favorites were the Jack-in-the-Pulpit

And the columbine.

There were some very wet mushrooms growing on an injured tree trunk…covered with slugs.

Many of the ferns were already unfurled but there was a fiddlehead and unfurling frond that I couldn’t resist photographing.

There were some very wet irises in one of the formal gardens

But I liked the red poppies more.

Dogwoods and Jack-in-the-Pulpits at Brighton Dam Azalea Garden

Azaleas are not the only plants I look for at Brighton Dam Azalea Garden. The dogwoods and jack-in-the-pulpits are blooms at the same time. The dogwoods are understory trees. The older ones that are the understory to the big oaks and tulip poplars are native dogwoods – white with notches on the outer edged of the ‘petals’.

Newer hybrid dogwoods are planted in the same area as the new hybrid azaleas in an area to the left of the garden entrance. There are white ones – without a notch…and pink ones. They are easier to photograph because the trees are smaller and more flowers are at eye level.

Jack-in-the-Pulpits are harder to notice because the flowers are almost the same color as the leaves. See if you can see the flowers before scrolling down to see more enlarged views. One of the enlarged views has a lot of aphids (yellow).