Friday, April 27, 2018

Mercer Arboretum & Botanical Gardens #TexasTravel

One of the great things about moving to a new state is discovering all the exciting places to explore. This week we went to Mercer Arboretum and Botanical Gardens. It is beautiful and we highly recommend a visit if you are in the Houston area.
Statue of Thelma Mercer
The inscription reads; "A visionary naturalist and innovative horticulturalist Thelma Mercer and her husband, Charles, created a charming and unique garden sanctuary on the original 14.5-acre property that would become Mercer Arboretum and Botanical Gardens on January 8, 1974. Her legacy endures in this place of beauty, serenity, and learning that is enjoyed by all who enter these gates."
Indian Pink flowers
 These Indian Pink flowers reminded me of firecrackers. They are such a brilliant color. Did you notice the lizard on the sign? It must have loved them too. All the flowers, trees and shrubs are labeled which is a wonderful way to remember your favorites.
butterfly on purple flower
 Butterflies abound in the gardens. They have a Monarch Waystation that provides milkweeds, nectar sources, and shelter to help sustain monarch butterflies as they migrate through North America. Isn’t that awesome? I thought of Princess Leah the Cavalier when I saw it.
Texas Vitex
 These dainty little flowers seem to thrive in the Texas weather.
The gardens have beautiful features including this stone archway. You’ll find benches and swings located throughout the grounds. I loved listening to the birds and wind chimes. It was a very peaceful way to spend an afternoon. 
*Notice: I'm sporting my BlueBell Ice Cream shirt! If you enjoy reading more about the fun places to see in Texas, visit my Blue Bell adventure and check out the Texas Bluebonnets post.
pinkish snapdragon
 I love snapdragons! These were such a lovely color. We have a lot of them in the gardens around our community. Maybe I should plant some for next year.
purple coneflowers with a bee
 These are purple coneflowers. They were so pretty and the bees really seemed to like them. Hmmm, maybe I should plant some of these too!
purple horned violets
 These horned violets were one of my favorites! They look so delicate and the purple trim is incredibly lovely. Okay, so I definitely need to plant these next year.
   The visitor center and some gardens were closed as they rebuild after Hurricane Harvey. The gardens are located along Cypress Creek in Humble, Texas. I can only imagine what it was like after over 50” of rain.
   Mercer Arboretum & Botanical Gardens are open daily throughout the year except for the ‘major’ holidays. That means you can have a different floral experience each month. We were at the east side gardens today but plan on returning soon to go explore the arboretum on the west side of the street. There you’ll find picnic tables, playgrounds, a hickory bog, boardwalk and cypress swamp. There are also several miles of walking trails. The only drawback to these amazing gardens is they are NOT dog-friendly. I promised Bentley and Pierre our next excursion would include them.    There are a million more places to discover in our new part of the Lone Star state and we look forward to sharing them with y’all. 
* For more information on Mercer Arboretum & Botanical Gardens, visit their website or follow them on Facebook for upcoming events and how to volunteer. 
** We are joining our friend Rosy and the Gang at LLB in Our Backyard for Flower Friday. Visit their blog to hop along, stop to smell the roses or tiptoe through the tulips!
A HUGE congratulations to the winner of
Pierre’s Birthday Sweepstakes!
Nichole B. is from Lapdog Creations and we are so happy for them. 
We'd also like to thank everyone that took the time to wish Pierre a happy birthday and enter the giveaway. Another chance to win is coming up soon!
We’d like to thank our awesome sponsors one more time:
Join us for the Pet Parade Blog hop. You can add any post you’d like, and our link is open all week. I co-host this hop with my fur-bulous friends at Rascal and Rocco and Basil's Blog. Join us for the fun this week!

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21 comments :

  1. that is true... there are so much things we can discover after we moved and we still have to discover a lot of things here ... even after 21 years ;O)))

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  2. How exciting! Glad you are exploring! Looks very pretty there!

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  3. What beautiful flowers and we love the stone archway! Congratulations to Nichole B!

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  4. You are really enjoying your new home and in such a short amount of time. So happy for you all!

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  5. What a beautiful place! I love public gardens like these, it's so peaceful to walk around or just sit & reflect.
    Love & Biscuits,
    Dogs Luv Us and We Luv Them

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  6. That looks like a beautiful place to visit.

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  7. Beautiful! (If you ever go to Niagara Falls, Ontario, be sure to visit the Botanical Gardens there.)

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  8. We had hoped to visit this place when I was in Houston last week but alas, there just wasn't enough time. But the next time I go, I definitely want to see it. Hopefully the snapdragons will step be blooming, I love them too and they easily reseed in my garden. Yay!

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  9. Wowsers!!!! So many beautimous flowers to look at, Mama also loves botanical garden places...our county garden just started allowing pups. I am sooooo going to ask Mama to take me next time she goes!
    xoxo,
    Rosy

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  10. What gorgeous flowers at the Botanical Gardens
    My Dad has been celebrating his bday all day so far. My peeps had their BFFF's over for lunch and ice cream cake....and they just left at 2 we are behind
    Hugs madi your bfff

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  11. Gorgeous flowers and critters, too! Snapdragons sound scary, but they actually look pretty friendly in spite of their name...

    Love and licks,
    Cupcake

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  12. I have never seen snapdragons that color! I usually plant some, but now I'm going to be on the hunt for that particular color.
    What a beautiful place, I love visiting gardens like that.
    Jan, Wag 'n Woof Pets

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  13. WE love violets!!!! We used to grow snapdragons when I was a child in CA
    hugs
    Hazel, Mabel & Mom

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  14. What a beautiful place! We love the stone archway.

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  15. Whut beeyoutifull flowers!

    Momma sez dat dose aren't da vitex, though.... vitex grow up real big, like a small tree and have purple flowers that shoot up like spikes in da summer. She isn't sure whut da flowers are, maybe sum kinda phlox.

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    1. Thanks for the heads up! I was just going by the placard that was in the flowers. It must have been referring to one of the trees. You are pawsome ♥

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  16. What a lovely place to visit! Coneflowers are some of our favorites, too. And the bees DO love them lots. :)

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  17. Looks like a beautiful place! When our pawrents were in Houston their friend too them to the Mortuary Museum. It was very interesting cuz their friend was a retired mortician.

    Just Stopping in to bark hello!

    Murphy & Stanley

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