The Quad City Botanical Center is located just west of the rail yard along the Mississippi and helping to revitalize this older industrial area. While describing the gardens in the area I have enjoyed the contrasts. Quad City is a traditional botanical garden while the Vander Veer Botanical Garden across the river in Davenport, Iowa had a more park like atmosphere and Noelridge Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa could very well claim to be a botanical garden rather than just a park.
As I remember I did not even get into the garden proper before chasing butterflies that were clustering all over the tree. I believe the large clump of daisies with all their butterflies were also outside the main garden.
While I do not remember exactly which church the model represents, I was captivated by the use of pennies for shingles on the narthex roofs. It is also hard to see in a small picture but the spires are rather long sharp pointy deck screws. Model makers can be very ingenious in using common materials.
When it comes right down to flowers I have a hard time choosing between camellias and lily pads. If I can find a dragon fly sitting on the lily pad it is much better than bees on the camellias. In the tropical garden the waterfall helped increase the humidity and the wall supports this staghorn fern. With just a couple more lily pads and the pink zinnias I will leave this garden until next time.
