Garden tours...

I’m back after spending a couple of fun filled days with my daughter. It is always such a joy to spend time together, I wish we didn’t live so far apart. We had two fun filled days and nights together before I headed back home and you can read about what we did on Jayme’s post.On my way home yesterday, I stopped at Munsinger & Clemens gardens to stretch my legs after the first 2 ½ hours in the car (it's a little over 4 hours total). These gardens are two of my favorite in the state and I wanted to check them out one last time before the first frost since things are already frost bitten up at Jayme’s.

First I toured the Clemens gardens. The seven acre Clemens Gardens were developed primarily in the 1990s by Bill and Virginia Clemens, who then donated them to the City of St. Cloud. They include six gardens in a formal European style with American plantings and five beautiful fountains. I parked and entered into the Formal Garden, with flowers and a fountain (above photo). The main entrance is the Rest Area Garden with clematis and rose vines, annuals, perennials, the main building and one of the tallest outdoor fountains in Minnesota. I didn’t take a photo because the fountain was undergoing repairs and there were workmen everywhere. You can see a shot of this beautiful fountain on my last visit here, our sister/niece day in June.

Next, I walked through the White Garden inspired by the Sissinghurst Castle garden. It was still pretty but had lost most of it’s white blooms of summer.The Perennial Garden was next. It is planted with perennials hardy to Minnesota winters, with a 12-foot high, cast iron replica of a pre-Civil War fountain patterned after the original in Columbus, Georgia.
This late in the year, the yellows showed up the most but it is gorgeous in mid summer.
Then it was up to the Treillage Garden, which has an arbor trellis (104 feet long, with a central dome 24 feet high), a fountain under the dome and is surrounded by four single-color gardens. This view is of the blue garden…
and the red garden…
the purple garden…
and finally the yellow garden.
As I walked back through these 5 gardens to the rose garden, I stopped to admire these flowers. I think they are “kiss me Kate over the garden gate” and I would love to find seeds for these. If anyone has extra to spare let me know.I spent lots of time just admiring the late season blooms and making mental notes of things I would like to add to my gardens when I hear a noise right next to me. I looked up and a chipmunk was enjoying a meal of dead flower heads right next to me. I think I found the secret to weight loss…I would be a thin woman if I had to hang on spread eagled with my legs to enjoy my meals!
The last garden area I walked through here was the Virginia Clemens Rose Garden which holds over 1,100 roses including floribundas, tree roses, hybrid teas, shrub roses, and grandifloras. This late in the season it is definitely past it’s prime (view the sister/niece link to see it in June) but the scent of the sweet alyssum was almost overwhelming.
Blue delphinums were blooming around the fountain…
and hosted lots of butterflies.
This area also had a “AAS test garden” and I fell in love with the color of this rose. It was only labeled with a number “climber 08R604”. Since I lost my huge climbing rose in the severe windstorm we had in August, I will be on the lookout for this pretty wine colored rose in the future.
Contnue on to the next post to see Munsinger Gardens.