Inside Gardens

Bird Haven Greenhouse and Conservatory, Joliet

Oak Park Conservatory

Can there be a more organic style of architecture than conservatories and greenhouses built, designed with elements to promote harmony between people and nature, to offer an indoor world to explore flora and fauna?

For two photo challenges, Weekly Photo Challenge: Inside and Travel theme: Gardens, I compiled an assortment of photos taken from strolls inside gardens.

As I walk curved lanes through the middle of lush vegetation, my thoughts shift from harsh, frigid, and icy words associated with winter to verdant, inviting and colorful words associated with spring and summer.

I’ve entered bucolic indoor settings of colorful plants, fragrant flowers, koi ponds and musical birds.

parrot in indoor tropics at Oak Park Conservatory

I walk a few steps further down a lane passing from arid desert to leafy plants in emerald, cinnamon and crimson shades, rows of green seedlings sprouting from rich mud, and a rainbow of flowers in fuchsia, apricot and other hues.

Bird Haven Greenhouse and Conservatory

Oak Park Conservatory

It’s an indoor landscape with palm trees reaching up to glass ceilings, ferns encircled by lavender scented floral borders.

Garfield Park Conservatory

Everything is ornamental, aromatic and colorful in these serene spaces, inside gardens.