Good morning from the garden!

I’m so happy that gardening season is nearly upon us.  Here in Minnesota there is only so much we can do this early in the season, but I’ve pruned my hydrangeas and I’ve top dressed my gardens with some Espoma Plant Tone.  Now I just have to wait until after our last average frost date to start planting my annuals which is usually around mid-May.

My scilla are up and blooming …

but that’s about it.

But to tide my garden loving readers over until spring has truly sprung for us, I thought I’d share a couple of gardens that I saw on my recent visit to Las Vegas starting with the Ethel M Botanical Cactus Garden.

If you aren’t familiar, Ethel M Chocolates has a factory in Henderson, Nevada (which is the suburb that my mom lives in).  It’s around 10 miles away from the Las Vegas strip, so if you are visiting Las Vegas without a car, it won’t be practical to get to.

But if you do have a car, it’s definitely worth a visit.  Especially if you’re planning to drive out to Hoover Dam since it wouldn’t be too far out of your way to stop here too.

I recommend visiting in the spring when quite a few of the cacti are blooming, but it is pretty all year ’round.

I used to think that desert landscapes were boring, but spending so much time out visiting my mom since I’ve retired is helping me gain a new appreciation for them.

Entrance to the gardens is free, as is entrance into the factory where you can see how they make their chocolates.  You can also purchase chocolates in their gift shop, but I’ll warn you, they aren’t cheap.  A box of 24 chocolates will run you around $55.

I’m not a huge chocolate lover, give me a bakery item over a chocolate any day, so I tend to not buy anything when we visit.  The garden is well worth a visit whether you love chocolate or not though.

One of the most unique things in the garden are the saguaro skeletons.

Have you heard of these?  They are the dried out ‘ribs’ of the saguaro cactus that remain after it has died.  They are highly valued for their unique sculptural look.  I think they are a little bit spooky, but still quite beautiful.

Now for a completely different look, let’s head to garden number two.

As I mentioned last week, we stayed one night at the Bellagio on the strip last week.  I mainly picked this hotel and casino because I wanted to visit its conservatory.

Now, you don’t have to stay at the Bellagio to see the Conservatory, anyone can walk in.  That being said, it was massively crowded from about 10 a.m. onward.  By the afternoon it was literally wall to wall people.  But I got up at 6 a.m. to pop down there and see it before the crowds descended.

It certainly is a beautiful display, but it was fairly obvious that not all of the ‘flowers’ are real.  Certainly that purple vine was artificial.

It reminded me quite a bit of the Flower & Garden Festival at Disney’s EPCOT where they also add artificial plants to create specific looks that would be next to impossible to maintain with real plants.

That being said, there are quite a lot of real flowers to admire as well including lots of spring blooming bulbs like these hyacinths …

and plenty of tulips.

They completely change up the display with the seasons, and it takes them about a week to switch it up during which time the conservatory is closed.  So if you’re planning a trip to Vegas, be sure to check the Bellagio website for the dates the conservatory will be closed.  For this year those dates are 5/18/2025 thru 5/23/2025, 8/24/2025 thru 8/29/2025 and 11/9/2025 thru 11/14/2025.

The Bellagio Conservatory is definitely worth a visit if you’re going to be on the strip anyway, but I’d definitely try to time your visit for the very early morning.  I’m not sure it would be worth battling the crowds later in the day.

It will probably be several weeks before I have anything of interest to share from my own gardens, but not to worry, Mr. Q and I are heading out east in a week or two and I’ll be visiting both Longwood Gardens and Chanticleer Garden.  I’m looking forward to sharing both of those with you soon so be sure to stay tuned!