Seattle's Volunteer Park and Conservatory

Every trip to Seattle is an adventure.  There are so many beautiful parks and recreation areas to visit. I so enjoy the Pacific Northwest!  On a recent tip to Seattle, my daughter suggested that we go to Volunteer Park and Conservatory.  I was amazed at the children's play structure, the lush vegetation, and gorgeous flowers.  Everything is planted with color in mind!

We first stopped off at the play structure to tire somebody out!

The Volunteer Park Conservatory was next!

The Conservatory has five sections or "houses."  The Palm House has the Orchid Collection, crotons, banana, ginger and many species of palms.

The Seasonal Display House is filled with color and fragrance.  The displays change each season. The spring display featured bulbs, lilies, cyclamen, and hydrangeas.

Did you know that all cacti are succulents, but all succulents are not cacti?  In the Cactus House there are succulents which are descendants of plants that adapted to dry hot conditions when the earth began to warm after the last ice age, as well as cacti.

The Fern House is home to many species of ferns as well as a diversity of tropical plants.  In the boggy area around the pool are papyrus as well as carnivorous plants.

The last house we visited featured Bromeliads.  Most bromeliads are epiphytes.  "Epi" is Greek meaning upon.  They grow by attaching themselves to the outside of rough surfaces like tree branches or rocks.  The plant I recognized immediately was the staghorn fern!  I did not know that it was in the epiphytes family.  I guess I never put it together....We had grown staghorn ferns years ago and it never dawned on me that it wasn't truly a fern.

After enjoying the conservatory we continued walking to the old water tower.

We ended our day by viewing the space needle through the Black Sun sculpture by Noguchi.

I am sharing today at Outdoor Wednesday hosted by Susan at A Southern Daydreamer.