Leaves - incredible designs

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Little, big, shiny, dull, multicolored, simple, complex and everything in between, leaves are all this and more. Stop and look at them. They are quite amazing and very necessary for life to continue on earth.

Prague has several botanical gardens including the oldest botanical garden in the Czech Republic located in the Smichov quarter of town. It was moved to this location in 1898 to protect it from the frequent flooding that occurred in its original location.

There is a much larger and newer botanical garden near the Prague Zoo and the Troja Palace with its lovely formal garden. We are extremely pleased with all the lovely things in each of these places. We went to see the zoo earlier with some of the new students. But a few weeks later we decided to go see this larger of the two botanical gardens. We had already enjoyed the older smaller one immediately upon arriving in Prague. The very good price for an annual senior citizen ticket to both the large botanical garden and the green house nearby tempted us enough that we each bought one. What a wonderful day we had in the botanical garden! It seemed to

be even more beautiful than on our last trip in 2008. But the hill over the garden caught our eye. There were enormous animal statues on the hill and children and parents playing and running and having lots of fun. When the next day dawned as lovely as the day before, we went again to the gardens and through the one-way gate to the hillside. We'll tell you more about that wonderful hill and the amazing woods around the hill later. We kept seeing signs saying the green house called the Fata Morgana was just down the trail. So we decided to take a quick glance to see exactly where it was and save it for a cold winter's day. Then we found it and decided to just 'peek' inside a second to see what was available for later. Over an hour later we left with our camera full of pictures we want to share with you. The Fata Morgana is a long "S" curved greenhouse filled with tropical plants. The variety of leaves here caught our eye. This is when we really began to see the leaves in a whole new way paying attention to all their varied shapes and glory.

The next time you are outside pay attention to the the variety of life around you ... even in the city.

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Photos

I'd like one in my yard.
To sit under and read a book

Comments

[Judy]

Plants
WOW, what beauty!

[Wang Peng]

beautiful leaves
These pictures remind me of the day we went to the Botanical Garden in Washington D.C together. Nancy has such profound knowledge of all the plants and gave me a slow and detailed explanation about them and her story of learning those plants and for some plants even though we have the same species in China, they turn out to be different due to the weather condition. Keep enjoying your life!