The Japanese garden had a muddy pond, some very well pruned trees and beautiful maples, but I was mostly excited about the camellias. I love these plants, and I haven’t seen one in bloom since I left North Carolina.

The aloe garden was the first truly botanically exciting part of the garden for me.  I had never seen so many different kinds and had no idea of the variety in size and form.  We were also fortunate to arrive when a lot of the aloes were just finishing blooming.  I’d never seen any type of aloe in bloom before, so it was interesting to get a look at its flowers.