Colonia is a bit of tourist city. Other than tourism, there’s not a lot of reason to be there. It was founded originally to help protect and take over-flow traffic from Buenos Aires. It’s nearly directly across the river from BA. It is also the primary port for the ferry services that cross between Argentina and Uruguay.

Many more pictures from my two visits (as of posting) to Colonia in my Colonia Flickr Set.

Another part of the Prado is a large, outdoor rose garden. Once again, we were a little before prime time but there was no shortage of bloomed roses.

More photos of roses and the gardens in my Montevideo Prado Rose Gardens Flickr Set.

In the far northern part of Montevideo, about a 20 minute drive, is the Prado. Among the many things in the Prado area is the National Botanical Gardens. We were a little before the season for everything to be fully in bloom, but there were a variety of flowers still. There was also a Hawk prowling the grounds.

More photos in my Montevideo Prado Botanical Gardens Flickr Set.

Arriving in Montevideo for it’s spring meant a lot of opportunities to take pictures of flowers in bloom, including quite a variety in my back yard.

More flowers, and a lot of other pictures from Montevideo in my Montevideo Flickr Set.

The San Francisco Arboretum was exceptional. A variety of beautiful plants that were well maintained and easy to photograph. Come prepared to sweat though, a couple of the rooms have extremely high humidity and very warm temperatures. It took several minutes on transitions for the camera to fully adjust. I’m very happy with the number of good shots I got from this shoot. As usual, I’ve only selected a few for here. If you don’t usually visit the flickr sets, I encourage you to do so this time (link at the end of the post).

Many more photos in my San Francisco Arboretum Flickr Set.

While moving, I took a weeks vacation to San Francisco. One of the first stops was to the San Francisco Botanical Gardens. The gardens are located in Golden Gate Park and free to enter during their operating hours. They’re very open and a nice relaxing place to be.

Many more photos in my San Francisco Botanical Gardens Flickr Set.

Of particular note in Plovdiv are its gardens. The parks are huge and are covered in shade trees and gardens. Quite beautiful and a very nice place to just wander or rest.

More photos available in my Plovdiv, Bulgaria Flickr Set.

Now that I’m home and somewhat settled again, I’m getting a chance to update here with some of my new pictures. These are from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center south of Austin, Texas. It has beautiful grounds. We were there late in the season (almost winter) but there were still a variety of pretty flowers, gardens, and butterflies.

More pictures at my Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Flickr Set.

On April 28th, 2007 I visited the National Botanical Gardens… It was perfect timing. The flowers were at their peak, inside and out. The best shot of the set is above. The Passion Flower.  It is definitely worth a trip to flickr to view full sized (just click on the image).

(more photos below)

Many more photos in the Flickr photo set.