Rainbow Garden

Today I drove back out to the Ashikaga Flower Park to try to catch the last of the famous wisteria blooms.  I already did one post about the park at Christmas when we went to see the lights.  Today I caught just the last little bit of the wisteria, but they actually do different flower themes throughout the year.  So right now it is headed into the "Rainbow Garden" theme which includes a lot of roses, clematis and Japanese azaleas.  You can read more about the different themes here.

I almost called this post "Japan Shows Off" because the park is a really good example of how beautiful this country is......when you find a spot where they've laid off the concrete in favor of flower seeds.  :)

I had to get in a really awkward position to get this photo

the flower pyramids

see what I mean about showing off?

the last of the yellow wisteria

bridge over calm waters

small shrine in front of one of the wisteria vines

I found a tiny turtle.....there were lots of turtles in the ponds.....

.....and I ate vanilla and "wisteria" swirl ice cream, 
which mostly tasted like vanilla.

I was also pleasantly surprised to find that they have a plant nursery onsite.  Which, for me, is pretty
 much like finding a crack dealer.  I managed to not go too crazy but I did buy a pelargonium.  I had never heard of it either, but I could tell from the picture on the tag that it was supposed to keep mosquitos away.  So I looked it up on my phone.  Sure enough, Wikipedia confirmed that it is believed to deter mosquitos.  It's closely related to a geranium, apparently.  If it really does seem to help with the mosquitos on my porch, I'll probably end up planting them all over my yard.  (In case you're wondering, I haven't found any citronella plants, but if I do, I'll be all over them.)