San Antonio-Day 3

Saturday was our last full day together in San Antonio.  We decided we would finally get to the Botanical Garden or die trying!  Luckily we found the garden, although we did witness the bus driver ejecting a rider off the first bus because he was unruly.  The problem began when a guy started cussing at people on the bus.  I got the feeling these were people he didn't even know.  The bus driver stopped the bus, stood up and said, "Stop cussing or get off!"  The guy said he had already paid his fare and for the driver to stop threatening him.  I was afraid it might come to blows, but I think the bus driver could have held his own.  Apparently the man didn't want to stop cussing, so he got off.

We didn't realize that the number 7 bus that goes out to the Botanical Garden only ran once an hour, so we spent a lot of time waiting around and didn't get to our destination until past eleven o'clock.  By then it was starting to get pretty hot.  But the heat was not going to keep us from our favorite pastime of looking at flowers!  We spent about 3 hours there and saw lots of pretty flowers and cool plants.  We even got a free Chipotle lunch!  What is better than that?

Afterwards we were pretty much exhausted.  We took a quick detour for coconut gelato then rode the bus back to the North Star Mall where we got pedicures for our tired feet and one last meal at Chick-fil-A as well as some last minute shopping done.  The next morning I flew back home early in the morning.  My flight was only 1 hour 50 minutes, and it was smooth and uneventful.  We got in early, and Eric was there to pick me up.  I had such a wonderful time and I am so thankful that Susan and I got to spend that time together!  It felt just like old times.

I hope you enjoy flowers cause there are lots of them in this post.  To give due credit, many of these photos I borrowed from Susan's blog. :)  Some of them are mine too, but after my camera got bumped on the bus that morning, it was very finicky and most of the time wouldn't focus until I switched it to manual focus (which was also a pain).  I think I'm going to have to send in the lens to be repaired.

Pretty display at the entrance

Lots of pretty snapdragons in the front gardens

There were lots of pretty poppies.  I hadn't seen purple ones before.  The poppies reminded me of my parents yard in Idaho.

Susan photographed the roses beautifully, so I am borrowing her pictures of the roses.  This was the first area that we saw, and I had not learned how to override the auto-focus yet with my camera.  

George Burns

Lotus Rose

4th of July Rose (a favorite of mine)

Livin' Easy Rose (I've always been a big fan of orange/peach roses)

Dame d'Coeur Rose

Double knockout Rose

Home Run Rose

Gemini Rose (Susan has this one)

Susan and I used to go to some of the Olympia Rose Society meetings when I lived in Washington to learn how to grow roses.  We both love to garden and when we were neighbors, we always had fun touring each other's yards and discovering new flowers to plant. 

 Unfortunately, there weren't a lot of roses displayed at this garden.  I suspect San Antonio is similar to Tennessee in the fact that roses do not grow well there.  I have been very disappointed in my roses performance in Tennessee.  Even though the black spot and fungus can be a problem, it has been nothing compared to the Japanese beetles that have mostly destroyed all my roses.  That said, knockout roses (bush roses that are low maintenance) grow beautifully here AND in San Antonio.  

A better view of the double knockout rose. I'm thinking about adding this one to my yard.

Pond lilies with fish

Columbines have always been a favorite of mine since I was a kid

These weren't labeled, but I love them. A bell flower of some sort.

These were beautiful! Ruella tweediana 'Katie' flowers

Dianthas or Phlox?

 Although the flowers were beautiful, I was disappointed in the labeling of flowers.  I want to know what I'm looking at. :)

A variety of iris I believe

Bearded Iris?

Me and the fountain :)

Lots of pretty planters around

Poseidon

Hydrangeas are my favorite flower, so I had to get these photos:

Japanese garden

It was difficult to squat down that low!

There seemed to be a lot of armadillo souvenirs, etc  in Texas and Susan loved them.  I think she has a thing for armadillos! :) 

Neat sculpture

Not sure if these are gladiolas or iris

This tree was interesting how it had plants growing out of it.

Flame of Jamaica 

Pretty orchids

More water flowers and lily pads

Olive tree

 There was an area where there were all kinds of citrus trees and other fruit bearing trees in pots.  I thought they were quite interesting.  I'd never seen an olive tree, so I got a picture.

Overlook point

In the prairie area, these were growing.  Blue bells or blue bonnets?

Cool castle planter

 After leaving the botanical gardens and heading back to the riverwalk for gelato, we saw this mama duck with her 9 little ducklings.  SO CUTE!  We kept thinking they were going to get run over by the tour boats several times but the tour guides seemed to watch out for them.

There were a lot of crape myrtle trees in Texas as there are here in Tennessee.  Some were much bigger than I thought they grew.  Susan and I liked this smooth bark.