The "The Sun Always Shines In The Arboretum" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Temperatures were in the low 70s and the sun was drifting in and out of the puffy white clouds.  Perfect day for a visit to the Penn State University Arboretum.  Carol and I are guests for the weekend with our friends Jere and Sue who live in State College, Pennsylvania.  Yesterday we visited the Grange Fair in nearby Centre County and today we are headed to the Arboretum at Penn State.  We have visited a few times before, but you never get tired of looking at all the beautiful plants and trees as well as fruits and vegetables that are grown at the Arboretum.  

Sign telling you about the nearby Mount Nittany.

The Arboretum is being built on a 370-acre parcel of land immedia- tely adjacent to the University Park campus of The Pennsyl- vania University in State College.  When it is fully developed  the Arboretum will include 29.5 acres of botanical gardens in the H.O. Smith Botanical Gardens and more than 340 acres of environmentally sensitive landscape and restored woodlands.  A visit to the garden is free of charge, but you can make a donation if you care to do so.  The master plan for the arboretum was developed from 1996-1999 and $10 million was needed to begin construction of Phase 1 of the H.O Smith Botanical Gardens which was completed in the fall of 2009.  

The Overlook Pavilion where you can enter the Arboretum.

The Childhood Gate's Children's Garden was completed in 2014 and has many native Pennsylvania plants and is a microcosm of the regional landscape.  I parked the car and we entered the arboretum near the beautiful Overlook Pavilion.  Wasn't long before I lost the others as I searched for a variety of flowers and trees to take photographs of to share with you.  The following are a selection from the eleven different gardens that are part of the Arboretum.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

This plant is known as Arnold Promise or Witch Hazel.  Click on images to enlarge.

Neat view of two people heading toward one of the water fountains. 

One of my favorite trees, the Paper Birch.
This tree looked as if it was winking at me!

Water Lily

This plant is known as the Rattlesnake Master.

This photograph was taken while looking into a kaleidoscope.  The flower is a straw flower.

The kaleidoscope that I used for the photograph above.

Straw flowers.

One of the many fruits that are grown in the gardens.  This is the Gold Rush Apple.

In person this looks exactly as it is named; Amaranthus Dreadlocks.

The bees loved all the sunflowers in the gardens.

This is the Joel N. Myers Sundial.  Really neat to try to tell
the time of day by using the sundial.  If you see the shadow to the
left of the large rock you will see it looks as if it is pointed at
the first rock.  That would make it 11:00 am.  The exact time we were there.

This is the Limber Pine tree.

The leaves of the Overlap Oak.  Ever hear of this variety?  I never did and I taught wood shop at one time.

The Maidenhair Tree. 

This is the Bismarck Palm.

The Fragrant Snowbell plant.  It did have a sweet odor, to me.

These two lovely flowers are Carol and Sue.

Another bee favorite, the Shrub Rose.

This plant, the Arkansas Blue-Star, is very soft to the touch.

The Sago Palm.  I have actually heard of the Sego Palm in the past.

Who wouldn't love the Snowdrop Anemone?

The pretty yellow flower with the most unusual name of Whorled Tickseed was a
good way to end my photographic session at the Penn State University Arboretum.