A Special Occasion

We recently attended the wedding reception of our friends Emilie and Matt at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. Even though I lived thirty minutes from this gem the three years I was in Alabama for law school, I didn't know it existed! Such a shame, because it is a huge, beautiful place, and we didn't get much time to explore since I wanted to catch up with my law school friends! We'll just have to go back!
Here is one of the beds near the entrance:
There are numerous large greenhouses. One was filled with camellias, one with cacti, and one with tropical plants. Here are some bananas growing in the latter greenhouse:

Scott is 6'3" or 6'4". This was a tall cactus:

A view of the cactus greenhouse:

The rose garden is huge and smells wonderful. Here is about a quarter of it:

Here are just a few roses of the hundreds they grow:

Look at this thick trunk:

I love this reflection pool. There were a few different types of lilies in it, and this grassy plant I suspect is papyrus but might be umbrella plant.

Since we didn't have much time, we elected to spend it running around looking at a few more things rather than taking pictures. My favorite part of the Gardens was the large vegetable garden. It was really hard to avoid the temptation to pick some of the plentiful ripe veggies! Turns out they donate the produce to a food bank.

Anyway, since we were dressed up, I had my friend Jenny take pictures of us for a possible Christmas card photo. What do y'all think?

I am horrible at fake smiles, so Scott is tickling me in the picture below to try to coax a real smile:

Not exactly Christmas card material, but hilarious!

Anyway, the BBG was a cool place and I would definitely recommend it if you're in the area. It's free. Have a great week!