Mynelle Garden 2011
Jackson, Mississippi

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No this is not an April Fools joke besides that was yesterday. This time I seem to have caught the Mynelle Gardens with almost no flowers at all. What I did manage to capture is this classic Japanese Garden shot of the lake, island, and bridge in the background. Johnny Cash sings of Ireland's Forty Shades of Green which just about covers the shades here in the spring with a blue sky and very light clouds. I have seen this garden in spectacular color so I will keep coming back.

Mynelle Garden 2010
Jackson, Mississippi

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The Mynelle Gardens was such a wonderful treasure when we visited in 2007 that we had to make a return visit.

Unfortunately we again seem to have missed the best of the Spring flowers. While we were too early for the northern part of the Natchez Trace here the azaleas seem to have completely finished for this year and the summer flowers had not yet bloomed. The pansys are just seasonal plantings from the greenhouse and I found the one lonely wisteria in bloom. When your traveling on a schedule the weather does not always cooperate and we will have to come back on another trip. Fortunately our visit to the Jackson Zoo made our stop in Jackson well worthwhile.

Mynelle Garden 2007
Jackson, Mississippi

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One of the special treasures we found in visiting Jackson, Mississippi was the Mynelle Gardens located on the west side not all that far from the zoo which is also wonderful. This is not a huge garden, but in the best traditions of Japanese gardens every step you take opens a new vista. It is also a very peaceful and spiritual place that refreshes the spirit and the soul. If that sounds a little trite a visit is definitely in order and highly recommended.

Every time I've been to Mynelle there have been some type of colorful annual planted at the entry. By and large this is one of the few accommodations they offer to the seasons. The rest of the garden is structured to be independent of the season, flowering in it's time but always pleasant to view.

Our first visit here was in mid February so some of the camellias were in bloom. I don't know the name for the red berries other than they are not holly. By now I try to take a picture of any name tags available, but in these early days I was just learning to use the camera and not worrying about documentation.

Out on the Village Green is this sculpture of children dancing that really requires more than two pictures to capture the 360 degree sculpture. Several times now I have run into the problem of capturing a two dimensional image of something that requires multiple viewpoints to be appreciated. I keep trying.

Here are a couple examples of the striking foliage that doesn't require flowers to be attractive. The garden uses non violent offenders from the city jail and people with community service sentences who enjoy the serenity of the garden but may not be the best at putting all the tools away after working.

Westbrook House here was closed on our first visit. Over the years funding has been found to complete repairs and renovations so it is now available for weddings and other functions. The petrified wood stump tucked in the back of the garden is also featured on the garden website available at the link shown above.

As with all Japanese style gardens there has to be a foot bridge over the pond or stream. The bright red berries I showed you above are what I normally expect on holly. The purple and pink berries here are definitely on a holly bush. All of the pictures I've shown so far are from the February winter garden.

As you can see from these last two February pictures spring is definitely on the way. When we returned in April the whole garden was in bloom with a riot of color so I'll try to just shut up and let the flowers do the talking.

Obviously this is only a small fraction of the pictures I took of this wonderful garden and the best I have ever seen it in bloom. I will continue to come back as often as possible to try and catch it like this again.

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