New Brunswick Botanical Garden

An unexpected benefit of République Provincial Park is that it abuts the New Brunswick Botanical Garden. Of course I had to go there. I waited until Friday hoping Bud would be well enough to attend, but although he’s on the mend he wasn’t up for this. So he and Matey stayed home.

I walked over, this beautiful campground made a nice prelude.

The day had turned nice and quite warm as I came to the impressive front entrance…

with its welcome garden.

As you leave the entrance building you are greeted by this huge water feature.

That’s not a lawn, it’s a lily pond!

Almost as soon as I started my tour some rain drops fell. I ducked under some trees and it really came down for a bit. It rained just long enough to make me run for a nearby building and get soaked.

The rain stopped, things dried out, and so did I.

There were a number of artists’ installations, this garden of time and space was one of them.

There was also topiary. Besides the woman at the gate there was this gardener that startled me by whistling and talking as I approached. Since he spoke French I didn’t catch what he said.

And there was this buffalo.

That was quite near the insect houses display. This little fellow did not read the sign on the kind of housing offered here.

Here’s another art installation. This one drew me in.

One of my favorite areas was the “flowering brook”.

It took the water from the ponds…

back to the Madawaska River.

It was a beautiful stream…

and invited wandering.

There were more ponds.

This topiary Canada goose was about to land in one.

That pond also had the shelter for the artist in residence along it. The shelter itself was a piece of art.

Around the perimeter was an arboretum. This was a young balsam fir, the provincial tree.

I would have suggested the larch, which obviously grow well here, but no one asked me.

And when did weeping varieties get this big?

Another of my favorites was the shade garden.

I revisited the main waterfall, this time climbing the artificial hill it fell down

Here’s where all the water starts its journey back to the river.

The last area I walked through was the perennial garden.

It was beautifully done and still had a lot of showiness this late in the season.

As I walked back towards the entrance building I passed by this guy, coming out of his shell to say hello.

When I left I detoured out to the auto entrance to get a good look at this horse. He was gorgeous and my favorite topiary.

What a treat this was.