St. Louis, Missouri.

This week, Amy asks us to take a walk, a photo walk. She writes, “You are invited to share your photo walk, whether park, beach or street.” You can read her challenge post here.

In my travels to new places (for me), I’ve often looked for the local botanical garden to see some of the area’s natural plants and get a feel for the local habitat. That walk through the garden always presents itself with plenty of photo opportunities. For this post, I will share one of my favorite garden visits, a walk through the Missouri Botanical Garden.

Visit at the right time of year and you will be rewarded with many flowers to select and focus upon. This is one of my favorites, a profile of a lily. No matter what season you visit, though, there will always be something worth seeing at the gardens.

The Linnean House features plants that are not suitable for the natural climate of the region around St. Louis. It is the oldest public greenhouse that is still in operation. Originally it was built to house citrus trees in pots that were brought inside for the winter, but over the years, its purpose has changed to house a wider variety of plants.

During our visit, the greenhouse contained succulents and other desert plants. It brought us a reminder of our winter home in Arizona.

On our walk, leaving the Linnean Building, we meandered through the rose garden where a wide variety of roses attracted our attention.

We soon found a Victorian Garden complete with brick walkways and a statue. The geometric planting areas invited us to sit a spell and enjoy the view.

This garden is one of the biggest botanical gardens we have visited. I have many more images that I could share, but I will leave you with this view of a gazebo where we spent some time just enjoying the sights and smells of this beautiful garden. If you would like a more complete tour of this garden, visit my original post here.

Thanks again to Amy for suggesting we take a photo walk. It reminded me that this year, we have missed our visits to botanical gardens in our travels.

John Steiner

Last week, our Travel Tuesday visited the Missouri Botanical Garden. During that visit, I captured many images of individual blossoms from the wide selection available in the garden. You can check out last week’s post here. Not being a botanist, I won’t try to identify any of the flora I captured here. This post is simply here to share the beauty of the flowers in the garden. Click on an image to enlarge it and to scroll through the gallery.

Many of the photographs featured here can be purchased from my online store as framed artwork. To view the Framed Floral Gallery, click here.

John Steiner

For almost 160 years, the Missouri Botanical Garden has invited the state’s residents and tourists alike to enjoy the wonders of nature. Henry Shaw, a successful businessman, retired at the age of 39 and became a philanthropist who developed many St. Louis institutions.Today the garden is no longer part of Henry Shaw’s country estate. It is now in the middle of the city of St. Louis, and it attracts thousands of visitors annually.  People stroll through the 79 acres (31 Hectares) that features Shaw’s original residence, a large Japanese garden, rose garden and even a geodesic dome conservatory known as the Climatron. The image below features a view of one of the water features inside the dome. The people standing at the viewpoint should give you some idea of the size of the garden area inside the Climatron.

In addition to several gardens and the dome, the grounds contain several green houses. The Linnean House is featured in the image below. During the time of our visit, it was home to a display of desert plants.

There are so many gardens to visit, we couldn’t begin to see everything in the half-day we allotted in our travel schedule. Plan to spend a full day, you’ll be glad you did. The image below features a view of the pond in the Japanese Garden. The gallery features more images from the oriental garden. 

The Victorian District and Tower Grove House are popular attractions. The image below features a view from the Victorian Garden. Over 300 volunteers and staff members ensure that proper care is taken of the exhibits. There is even a large Plant Records database that tracks all the plants that are, or have ever been, in the garden.

The price of admission is quite reasonable at $8 USD. If you’re lucky enough to live in St. Louis City or County and can prove it, you can get in for half-price, and if you’re a resident senior it costs even less. Also for residents, admission is free on Wednesdays and Saturday mornings (check their website for exceptions.) The facility is open 9 AM to 5 PM daily. The gallery of images below features views of the gardens. Click on an image to enlarge it and to scroll through the gallery. Next week, expect a gallery of blossoms captured in the gardens.

John Steiner

Sometime during the last few days, Journeys with Johnbo passed a milestone. As of today, over 500 followers are tagging along on my photographic journeys.

For all of you, I am sharing a never-before-published photo. The Linnean House is a part of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Lynn and I spent a magical afternoon there exploring the grounds and enjoying the views.

In an upcoming Journey, I will have more images from the gardens. For now, I will just say that if you live close to this treasure, you are lucky indeed.

You can also find me on Facebook at my Photo By Johnbo page here.

Twitter users can find me @photobyjohnbo

I am looking forward to many more journeys in upcoming months. If you aren’t already a regular follower, hop aboard!

John Steiner

Yesterday evening we arrived home after a nine-day cross country trip from North Dakota to Tennessee and back. Our final destination in Tennessee found us in Hasty Hollow, just outside of Lynchburg, about an hour or so out of Nashville. This year, our Steiner Family Reunion brought us to the hollow where cell phone and Internet service are all but non-existent on mobile devices. 

Along the way, and during our stay in Tennessee, we visited several states that will be added to my list of state categories here in Journeys with Johnbo. Today’s Cellpic Sunday photo adds Missouri to my list, a sneak peek at the Missouri Botanical Garden in Saint Louis. This victorian garden was captured with a Samsung S7 and edited on an iPad Air. The rule for Cellpic Sunday is simple, the image must be captured and edited on a mobile device. More to come from the botanical garden in a future post.