I visited the Phelps Grove Park Stumpery for the first time recently. It is a 2025 addition to the park and one that will become even more interesting over time as the plants become more established and the stumps decay further.

I enjoyed the fungus that is already growing on the decaying wood.

It was a hot day, and I welcomed the big trees along part of the stumpery path….and the plants growing there.

It is appealing to have a place to leave parts of trees that have fallen in storms. The stumpery was initiated with logs and wood pieces from the April 2025 storm….and will probably be replenished or enlarged in future storms. The neighborhoods surrounding the park have a lot of large trees.

This has me thinking about some pieces of a rotting redbud trunk that my daughter had removed. Maybe I will put them in my native plant garden to form a mini-stumpery that will only be visible until the native plants fill the bed completely (probably will happen before they completely decompose).

So much to see at the Missouri Botanical Garden…

The Climatron is full of lush tropical plantings. Intimate landscapes of ferns and bromeliads…

Flowers (including orchids) and seeds tucked into the greenery….

Flowers and stems different than we see in temperature parts of the world.

Out in the summer sunshine…cone flowers and sunflowers thrive.

Daylilies are blooming profusely.

There was a very odd plant in Linnean House. I took several views of it…and should have taken a picture of the tag too!

I found myself interested in objects where the light was not overly bright or overhead.

And there were some places/plants that became immediately special: a large puffball under a bald cypress that was growing before the garden was started, button bush (one of my favorite native plants), and a woodland area with a gurgling stream (artificial but made to look natural, I enjoyed a short rest on a bench).