We arrived in Asheville to visit our friends Gloria and Jerry and had a lovely evening. The following day, being nice and sunny, we headed out to
The North Carolina Arboretum. This place, about 434 acres in size, includes a lovely arboretum, botanical gardens and a lot of walking paths to explore.
Although the idea for the arboretum stretches back to landscape architect in 1898, the actual place was not developed until quite recently – 1986 – so it is new and filled with lovely plants. While the place is still under development, there are a variety of hiking and bicycling trails along with several mature gardens. Our goal for the day was to get to the bonsai collection.
Inside the main building was a travelling exhibit, Making Scents: The art and passion of Fragrance. While we have seen similar examples of fragrance displays, including a museum in Paris, it was neat to see someone Janeen knows from the Huntington Library and Gardens in CA as part of the exhibit! Tom Carruth
is the curator of the Rose Garden and is known for breeding scented roses such as Sentimental and the Juila Child Rose
After looking over the traveling exhibit we headed outside
and walked towards the bonsai garden and past the model train (which it seems every garden needs to have)
and past a number of lovely areas. Eventually we made our way to the bonsai area
that was specular. It always amazes me to see these huge trees pruned to be so small!
After the Arboretum we drove out the Blue Ridge Parkway
and stopped for lunch at Pisgah Inn. This restaurant is at the top of the
mountain overlooking the various surrounding hills. Nice views, lunch was OK views were better.
For dinner we hit a Mexican restaurant called Limones Restaurant.
Not overly crowded and had delicious food.