Reiman Gardens, Part Two

Continuing yesterday's posts with some more wonderful pictures of Reiman Gardens, so I can actually post early today.

This is another example of vertical planting, and such an easy one!  They made pockets to plant into.... and I think this could be done easily at home,

Here is an example of the handmade bird feeders and bird houses also on display right now at Reiman Gardens.  This one was especially nice, an octagonal barn.  On the weathervane it reads "Our Iowa", the name of the publication that sponsored the contest.  

They also had a display of models representing DNA.... and they really blended quite beautifully into the landscape.  There were many, not just this one.

Here we are with Elwood the Gnome.  Gnomes were displayed last year in the gardens, but Elwood came and stayed!

Reiman Gardens also has a butterfly house.  We listened to a short talk before going in... actually I went in, while Trudy waited, as she has been there many times.  The butterflies are bought from a butterfly breeder (who knew????) to the tune of 80 a week, and 40 are added to the room daily, as they live only two weeks.   Many are not native to the area of Iowa, and the butterfly operation is under strict USDA rules.  They have a double-door system so that all butterflies can be removed if they have hitchhiked out on you. 

This is a just hatched moth drying out in the hatching room, where you can see everything happening.  It's HUGE!

Unfortunately, this is an example of a butterfly that has already died... but there was a live one fluttering around inside that I could not get to hold still long enough to take a picture.

This one looks like a leaf.

I love the color of this one.

I won't bore you with any more pictures of our trip... nothing worse than sitting and gawking at someone else's good time... but just to say that it was a lot of fun, and Keith got to play nine with his dad, while his mom and I looked at beautiful plantings.  I got so many good ideas.