The catalogs have arrived filled with photos of lush green plants and delicious looking vegetables. And now a cold snap has arrived too. If you’re feeling the need to be near some green living plants, you might want to take a trip north to Ann Arbor to visit the University of Michigan’s Matthaei Botanical Gardens’ conservatory. The tropical house is warm (around 80 degrees), moist and earthy smelling, a gardener’s paradise! It also has a temperate house and a desert house filled with plants.
Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum are celebrating their Centenial Anniversary this year. Special exhibits and informative signs will be on display later in the season.
You can get to the MBG by going north on US-23 to Geddes RD. exit. Turn right, get in the left turn lane immediatlely and turn left on Dixboro Rd. Take it north for a few miles and look for the two big signs on the right that say Matthaei Botanical Gardens.
Admission to the Gardens is free; admission to the conservatory is $5 for adults. Friday afternoons are free and it is open six days a week from 10:00am till 4:30pm. On Wednesdays its open till 8:00pm. Information: 734-998-7061 or online at sitemaker.umich.edu/mbgna
We only have a little over four months until the average frost free date in May!
Happy green dreaming,
Judy