Botanical garden has tranquillity, talky parrots
Ican’t resist a road sign that reads “Botanical Garden, next exit.” So I pulled off the Texas highway; got lost as usual; consulted Siri, who insisted I wanted “Bamboo Gardens Chinese Restaurant”; fought with Siri; fought traffic, which insisted I wanted to go right, not left; saw another sign; and eventually found my way to the South Texas Botanical Gardens & Nature Center.
Fortunately, the gardens, in Corpus Christi, provided me with a well-needed hour or so of tranquil respite from the cares of unfamiliar roads and Texas drivers.
The 182 acres on Oso Creek are a beautiful stop with traditional and not-so-traditional garden displays.
Orchid and bromeliad conservatories were filled with delightful flowers and foliage, but I was too early in the season for the butterfly house.
And at the plumeria garden, the delicate, fragrant denizens were just being replanted after having been dug up, as they are every year to protect them from winter weather. But the rose garden was already in bloom, with dozens of varieties in every color competing for attention.
I also enjoyed a leisurely stroll along the gardens’ Mary Hope Brennecke Nature Trail through the only native forest remaining in Corpus Christi. The trail winds through mesquite brush habitat filled with woody, thorny native plants welladapted to the region’s hot, semi-arid climate.
An observation tower above a small natural lake and wetlands is an ideal spot for bird-watching.
I also had fun conversing with the gardens’ friendly, chatty exotic parrots, which were donated by a local companion-bird club that had rescued them. (The
captive reptiles that live there — snakes, lizards, tortoises — were less verbose, but still interesting to observe.)
Alas, although I was tempted by the Monkey Mansion Tree House, a delightful-looking playhouse perched atop a 400-year-old tree trunk, I’m about five decades removed from appropriately enjoying such pleasures.
Soon enough, I remembered my
schedule and my next appointment, a sighinducing 200 miles away, and climbed back into the car.
But, like always, I was glad I hadn’t ignored the “Botanical Garden” sign.