Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Victoria's Road Trip: Old Westbury Gardens and Planting Fields in Long Island, New York



I was a lucky girl this week and got to go on a wonderful field trip to Long Island with my great friends Deb, Bonni, and Barbara. We visited Old Westbury Gardens and Planting Fields where we attended a wonderful program put on by Horticulture magazine.

This is a dawn redwood Metasequoia glytostroboides that we got to visit with during the lunch break in class. This is one of my favorite trees, it's known as a living fossil because it has been around for 350 million years. It was rediscovered in the 1940's and brought here to the United States by the Arnold Arboritum. This one was maybe 70 ft tall. It had wonderful cones and these long string like beads of seeds? Not really sure what they are but boy were they pretty. Any one have a clue?