Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens offers world-class horticulture, art and nature-based exhibitions and educational programs for all ages. Our dear friend Karen took us there with her annual membership. Being on 40 acres of Franklin Park, the Conservatory features the historic 1895 John F. Wolfe Palm House, 83,000 square feet of glasshouses, botanical gardens and meeting and event spaces.
The Children's Garden focuses on introducing and connecting children to the natural world where they can explore nature while getting out some energy running throughout the grounds. The Conservatory also displays the world’s largest collection of Dale Chihuly’s glass artwork in a botanical garden.
Mary Anne, Karen, Larry
Karen and Larry
Some of the Dale Chihuly’s glass artwork
There are many displays throughout the gardens that have magnificent Lego structures of people, equipment, animals, flowers and more. The first one we came across was this spectacular Monarch Butterfly!
The fox and the rabbit
The Hummingbird
Gardening
Sundial
Gardener
The Children's Garden where they see and experience the natural world and they explore nature while getting out some energy running throughout the grounds. And to us adults, it is just beautiful!
All aboard! The Paul Busse Garden Railway at the Conservatory and Gardens! The 9 G scale model trains travel across tracks that run high and low through themed destinations: Fairytale Land, Wild West Town, European Travels and an animal-centric Who Lives Here area. This miniature world of 51 botanical models is made from all-natural plant material. Special elements to add to the itinerary include an enchanted tree hollow, two waterfalls, a bubbling brook and plantings specific to each themed destination.
A view of the Conservatory from the train display
NavStar sculpture by Stephen Canneto at the Franklin Park Conservatory. Three enormous 30-foot-high shining sails that glitter in the sun. The largest is pointed at the North Star. The sculpture is located in a large circle of paving stones, adding to its dramatic effect.
The Conservatory even has beautiful Koi Fish.
The glass art is scattered through the buildings and grounds. Spectacular!
Inside the spectacular John F. Wolf Palm House
What a magnificent and spectacular hanging glass art piece!
More attractive parts of the Conservatory and Botanical Gardens wherever you look!
Our afternoon stop was at the Historic Underground Railroad Site of Abolitionist Fernando Cortex and Sophia Stone Kelton. They built this house in 1852 when it was surrounded by pastureland. They were both ardent abolitionists who were members of the local antislavery committee. We looked around the back garden and took in its beauty as we waited the 20 minutes or so for our tour to begin.
Our docent told us that Fernando and Sophia kept everything which made it easy to restore the house with the original furniture , wallpaper and documents.
The Grandfather clock is a treasure in it's own!
Sophia Kelton hand-painted each design and pattern on every plate. As head of the household, she was to do no work as servants did all of that. So to spend her time painting these dishes was her pastime! They are gorgeous!
The bathtub was retrieved from the back garden, where it was used as a flower pot. When the house was restored, the bathrooms that had been put in the house after this period were removed.
Saturday morning, August 2nd, we went to the Columbus Park of Roses, which is a park within Whetstone Park, featuring a 13-acre rose garden that showcases over 350 varieties of roses and 11,000 total roses. The park has five gardens: the Main Rose Garden, the Heritage Garden with turn-of-the-century roses, the Earth-Kind Rose Garden, the Herb Garden and the Perennial Garden. In existence since 1953,. The rose gardens are only part of many other gardens here.
Several of the trees are adorned with these doors for the squirrels and birds. They are all different and individual. They were great to find and see. We thought this one was particularly beautiful!
We climbed the tower to get some aerial shots of this gorgeous park
After this Rose Garden excursion, we met up with Mary Anne's cousin, Loraine and her wife Kelly, at German Village's Katzinger"s Deli for lunch. It was great to see them once again. We had great deli sandwiches and even better conversations. It was marvelous! After lunch, they had us over to their house and we got to see their flower and vegetable gardens. We had a lovely time and look forward to the day that they come to visit us in California!
Larry, Loraine, Kelly, Mary Anne
Cousin Loraine
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