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Even though I've lived in Arizona most of my life, I have never visited the Desert Botanical Gardens or the Butterfly Exhibit! The Gardens are located at the southeast corner of Phoenix, adjacent to Scottsdale and Tempe. I checked out the information on their website and loaded up my camera, took some water, wore a hat and off we went. I like these little day trips with my husband. Since I am so fond of taking pictures, I love to go where I'm sure to find awesome subject material. I'll share a few here, and then do a slide show of more. I took over 100, so rest assured, you don't have to see them all. I even did a rather small video and will see if I can get that to work. We shall see!
By way of information, the Desert Botanical Garden has activities scattered throughout the year, but during March, April and May, the wildflower exhibit and the Butterfly exhibit are especially popular. The last day is May 11.....checking the website will provide information on admission prices, hours, etc.
In this picture, you see what appears to be the Julia butterfly enjoying lunch. ;-)
The exhibit hosts hundreds of colorful butterflies fluttering around us as we walked, talked and took pictures. The lush gardens are filled with colorful flowers, water and is enclosed in a screened in area. The Marshall Butterfly Pavilion is a place we can watch butterflies sip nectar from flowers, perch in sunny locations, and land on our shoulders, heads, arms, etc. We were asked to be sure to watch where we walked so we didn't inadvertently step on one.
There are several trails throughout the Garden area with signs describing the plant names, what they were used for, explaining that the fruit was edible, etc.
Included in the Garden are: "plants and people of the Sonoran desert trail", "Sonoran Desert Nature Trail", "Desert Discovery Trail", "Herb Garden", "Desert Wildflower Trail", and much, much more.
This little guy (the round-tailed ground squirrel) came right up to my husband - unafraid - and I got his photograph. I think he was smiling for his picture! ;-) There are hummingbirds, (we saw a green one), and many other critters in the garden. We also spotted a couple of desert spiny lizards crawling along as well.
As desert dwellers, we interact with our surroundings. Visiting the Garden and traveling along its trails exploring the many uses of desert plants for food, construction, tools, basket-making and more. The art of pounding mesquite beans to make flour was awesome. It really does look like flour.
The wildflowers were really blooming attracting hummingbirds and butterflies.
I also found out that we can actually buy wildflower seed at www.plantsofthesouthwest.com and www.wildseedfarms.com. So, if any of you are in the market for a wildflower garden, now you know where to buy the seeds.
Watch for my photo shows..........they'll be up soon. I hope you learned lots of good stuff. ;-)
 
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