Alaska Botanical Gardens

Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone! We're enjoying a nice long staycation weekend in Anchorage.  There's nobody in town, so it's been the perfect time to run errands and get stuff done without having to deal with normal weekend crowds.  The weather's been warm and rain-free still, which would ordinarily mean that we'd be spending lots of time outside, but mother nature has other plans for us.  Some of you may have heard about the big wildfires that are burning in Alaska - one in Soldotna on the Kenai Peninsula and another in Tyonek north of Anchorage.  Something about the wind has made it so the smoke has settled pretty firmly on top of Anchorage, which means we have to limit our outside activities.

Yesterday morning I took a picture of the sky with my phone.  This is looking east from the top of the sledding hill by Service High School.  Ordinarily, this view is FULL of mountains.  Not this weekend!

One thing we did want to do was check out free day at the Alaska Botanical Gardens.  I'd heard they were also holding a plant sale with plants they grow at the gardens (meaning, hopefully, plants that would also grow in our yard...), so it seemed like a good day to finally make a trip out there.  Thankfully the smoke wasn't too bad when we got there, and we were pleasantly surprised by this little gem just a few minutes from our house (and! it was free!)

All of the visitors were totally preoccupied with the plant sale, so we had the place pretty much to ourselves.  Even though it was early in the season, and some things were just starting to pop up, there was quite a bit to see.  Andy's being a nice husband and checking out the construction of the ginormous pergola.  I told him we need one of these in our yard.

The pergola is covered by an Arctic Kiwi - we have one at our house, too!

We also saw a number of swallowtail butterflies in the garden.  They're so pretty! One even posed for us, which was really sweet.

We really enjoyed walking around to see what kind of things grow up here - something new for me.  I wrote down names or took pictures of the signs when I could so I could take note for future garden planning.

Yes, we still have tulips blooming in almost-June.

And Narcissus (Daffodils)

Our yard is pretty empty right now, ESPECIALLY in front, but we do have one plant that's blooming like crazy.  I've been wondering what it's called so we can buy some more of it...thankfully it has a very memorable and completely adorable name:

Pigsqueak?! I love it!

These next two are extra-spready groundcovers that I think would also do well in our front yard.  This one is called Tartarian Statice.

And this is Aleutian Speedwell.

The botanical gardens also have a really impressive collection of primroses, which grow incredibly well up here.  I think we must have seen 20 different kinds, though I only took pictures of a few.

The gardens also have a ridiculous amount of peonies (one of my favorite flowers!), which weren't quite in bloom yet.  Andy and I decided the gardens would be a great place to visit when the moms come up this summer and we need some easy little outings to do with the baby.  We didn't buy any plants because someone there told us they sell them all year, so we figured we'd have time to do it later in the summer.  Looking at all of this it's so hard to believe that it was just finishing snowing this time last year and now we're surrounded by all of these beautiful flowers.  I love it!