ANOTHER WALK AROUND GREEN SPRING GARDENS

We are trying to get as much exercise as we can lately, and always have a conversation before we start as to where we are going to take our walk that day.  Green Spring Gardens is a place we enjoy very much, we headed there.  We arrived later this time, just after the noon hour.  Not the best time for photographs but never mind, off we went.

I love the house and I wrote about its history in this post.  It has a gift shop and also a tea room. 

One of these days we are going to take our friends there for an afternoon tea.

The Japanese Anemones are planted out front...

and the stone plantar filled with succulents is just outside the front door.

But this was the last place we visited after our walk, as we began at the ponds I mentioned in my other post.

We are at the second pond where we saw all the waterlilies blooming.  There were none to be found today.  

Two very happy dogs were on the other side, and further along Gregg took a photo of one of them in the creek. 

There were more wildflowers in bloom than on our last visit. Down by the ponds are where you can find what they describe on their website as a naturalistic native plant garden.  I mentioned the Red Cardinal Flower in my other post, and behind them are the Blue Cardinal Flowers, also mentioned.

Further along the butterflies were enjoying the lantana...

and the bees were happily flitting from flower to flower.  They were all over the garden, good to see, busy little pollinators.  The closest I could get to identifying this orange beauty was a Mexican sunflower.  Not 100 percent sure, an orange sunflower at least.  It was in the more cultivated part of the garden.  

Another little bee happily getting bathed in pollen.

This photo shows that the thistles have dried up, though a few were still blooming.  You can see Gregg in the background taking his own photos.

This pretty pink flower is from the Black Cotton Plant, Gossypium herbaceum.

I have seen other types of cotton plant, one at a local garden we've been to.  I have also seen them growing in abundance while passing fields on a past road trip. This ornamental cotton is in the hibiscus family, and has deep black/purple maple shaped leaves and stems, which can grow 24 to 30 inches tall.  The pods are about the size of a walnut and when they split open you will see the white, fluffy balls of cotton.

I read all my information at this website, where you will find more if interested.I had a hard time taking this pink wildflower in the following photo, it was so small.  It is called a Smartweed and there are two types, one is Polygonum persicaria (also called 'ladysthumb') and the other Polygonum pensylvanicum.  Both are called Smartweeds.  It's a guess but what I have read I think it is Polygonum pensylvanicum, don't quote me though.

I found rather fascinating fungi on an old tree stump.  

It is called Trametes versicolor, also known as Coriolus versicolor and Polyporus versicolor, a common polypor mushroom.  

The common name for it is Turkey Tail because of its shape, which is similar to those of a wild turkey.

Apparently it is one of the most common mushrooms in North American woods and you

will see them on decomposing logs and tree stumps, just like the one I found at the garden.

And on that note I will finish my post.  

Thank you for always taking the time to look, and I very much appreciate the comments you leave.

(Both Gregg and I took photos for this post)