conservatory

It was chilly and windy the day we went to the Toledo Zoo. We had overestimated the temperature, and were two of only a handful of people there with bare arms. We investigated a lot of the indoor areas!

In addition to lovely outdoor plantings, the Toledo Zoo has a small conservatory.






















The leaf above belongs to the trunk below.

























The moment we walked into the conservatory, we noticed how good it smelled. My DH invited me to put my nose up against the screen door separating the public area from the growing area, and wow did it smell good back there!

A kind and generous gardener plucked this gardenia for me. I was sort of horrified and told him "No! Don't pick it!" but he said that if he didn't, they would just turn brown and no one could enjoy them but him. To my surprise, it survived a couple of hours without water, to get home, have its stem shortened, and float in a cup of water, perfuming the room, for a week.

Mmmmmm.