I think the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden was the first top quality botanical garden we had ever really explored and we quickly fell in love with this one where we purchased an annual membership and botanical gardens in general. There are about 300 gardens that belong to the American Horticultural Society that offer reciprocal admissions and we have now belonged to several always searching for the most economical choice.
Just inside the main visitor's Center was this whole menagerie of topiary animals arranged in their own corral. This late in the year they were all filled out and magnificent. There are also several other topiary sculptures throughout the garden including both animals and the more traditional abstract designs.
Off to the left as you are looking at the Visitor's Center is this trellis walkway with a lot of the more shade requiring or at least shade tolerant flowers. The walkway leads off to the more rugged areas of the garden that have not been fully developed. There is a master plan to continue expanding the garden which at this time was less than half completed.
Across the lawn from the Visitor's Center the brick walkway overflowing with plantings actually runs along a narrow pond with these small bubbling fountains leading to the taller fountain. This late in the year all the plantings are fully grown and in many cases overgrown to make the path one lane only.
The fish leap down the length of the pond in the profusion of flowers and grasses big and small.
With all the flowers there is naturally a profusion of critters to take advantage of them. We also enjoyed the fragrance.
Past the arch fountain that you can walk under with just a sprinkle is the wild flower area and several more topiary samples.
I'll cut this off now although I still have over a hundred more pictures of this wonderful garden including even more of my favorites. It was very hard to pick and choose the images to include here and keep the length reasonable.