Nature Study at the Huntington Gardens

We recently visited the Huntington Library to see the Gutenberg Bible and were pleasantly surprised to find grounds covered with fascinating gardens.  
The first garden we happened upon were the rose gardens.   The R in E-R stands for these:


 
She took lots of pictures of roses when we visited Gardens of the World in October, but afterwards when looking at the pictures, we had no way of identifying the roses.  This time she made sure to take a picture of the name plates after taking pictures of each type of rose.   She is excited to put her rose pictures together into a calendar to share with relatives this Christmas.
We happened upon this beautiful tree with those unusual flowers.



Such a pretty little tree—I think I could easily find a spot for it in our back yard.  

Next we visited the Cloud Forest Exhibit.   Not being too familiar with cloud forests, we didn’t expect to walk right into a cloud! 

 
Throughout the exhibit were cards that opened up showing what the inside of the plants looked like.   We were than able to find those plants and look at them up close. 

Right inside the pitcher plant were several insects in various stages of digestion. 


E-R also found a butterwort plant with several small gnats stuck on its leaves.                               

Texture was everywhere—both rigid and soft, smooth and fuzzy.  

We enjoyed learning about cloud forest and the plants that grow there, but most of all we enjoyed spending time together!

This post is linked up to Anna-Marie’s Field Trip Blog Hop.

Be sure to hop on over and be inspired by all the wonderful field trip ideas!