Spring is the season of burgeoning life, reviving color and natural inspiration. Across Missouri, botanic gardens provide perfect opportunities for senior groups for immersion in the sights and smells of spring.
Thousands of visitors return to Powell Gardens during the warming days to enjoy its 900 acres of flowering tranquility, 30 miles southeast of Kansas City on Route 50. Powell’s outdoor displays combine native plantings and contemporary architecture. Trees, flowers and vines peak sequentially through early spring before the transition to summer blooms begins in mid-May. Throughout the season, orchids and hydrangeas fill the Powell Conservatory in charming combination with Victorian garden furnishings. On April 19-21, artist and instructor Cynthia Padilla conducts a three-day workshop for aspiring and experienced nature artists.
The Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, a world-renowned, 73-acre urban oasis, has awed groups since 1859. Springtime transforms the Azalea-Rhododendron Garden into living canvases of mauve, white, yellow, purple and red. The English Woodland Garden alights in spring with dogwood and bluebell blossoms. The famous Climatron houses a year-round rainforest of plants, waterfalls and pools. Amateur horticulturists flock to MBG’s home gardening center for expert advice and unmatched inspiration.
The Mizumoto Stroll Garden is another urban refuge, this one in Springfield, in the state’s southwest corner. Nestled in Nathanael Greene Park, the Mizumoto is modeled on typical Japanese tea gardens, using stepping-stones, lanterns, and a tea hut as architectural contrasts to the natural landscape.
Spring comes early to Springfield, allowing visitors an expansive season to meander among pools, islands and individual garden segments discovered in unexpected isolation. The Mizumoto blossomed from Springfield’s sister-city relationship with Isesaki, Japan.
The University of Missouri has designated its entire mid-state campus in Columbia the “Mizzou Botanic Garden.” Several trees at the Peace Park arboretum, on the northern edge of the campus, have leafed out for more than 150 springs. Spirea, daylily and juniper surround the “life-size” statue of Beetle Bailey, the cartoon character created by M.U. alumnus Mort Walker. Flowers once found in Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello gardens bloom around his original tombstone now placed on Francis Quadrangle. In all, 28 separate gardens, arboretums, trails and wildlife ponds adorn the Columbia campus. Visitors may pick up tour maps of the Mizzou Botanic Garden at Reynolds Alumni Center.
For more information about Missouri’s year-round outdoor attractions, or to order a free 2007 Official Missouri Vacation Planner, log on to http://www.visitmo.com/ or call 800-519-4800.
Courtesy of grouptravelblog.com
