Winter Vacation! Flowers on the Las Vegas Strip

For the last month, the Boston area has been pounded with blizzard after blizzard, shattering records for snow and cold.

Thankfully I escaped.

The snow mountain at a local grocery store
- after they trucked out a lot.

For a few days, I was delighted to join my husband while he was at a conference in nice, sunny Las Vegas!

Now where does a gardener go in Las Vegas (especially one who is not very lucky at slot machines)?  The largest garden on the Strip: the Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.

Set under the 55-foot tall glass ceiling of the Bellagio's Conservatory, the gardens change every season according to a theme that is designed, implemented, and cared for by an army of over 100 horticultural staff.

The theme at the time?  Chinese New Year
2015 is 'Year of the Goat'

As a gardener, I was a little disappointed to find out that it was less a botanical garden and more an extravagant floral art show, but it was still fun and impressive to see.  The theme while I was there was 'Chinese New Year', and flowers and plants were used to build beautiful Asian-themed vignettes.

Several Chinese children frolicked through the garden, their clothes entirely made of flowers.  Water constantly ran through the displays, and I wonder how often they had to change out the flowers.

All of the thousands of flowers and plants looked incredibly fresh and healthy.

Each of the plants on the ground level was in its own (well-hidden) pot, ready to be changed out as it faded or wilted.

According to their information online, more than 10,000 potted plants are switched out over the course of two weeks in the garden.  After their short life, the old plants are turned into mulch for the rest of the Bellagio grounds.

Bamboo and Juniper topiaries served as vertical accents.  Most of the flowers were different Bromeliads and Chrysanthemums, but there were also orchids and a few other flowers I did not recognize.

It was impressive to see such a site in the middle of the dessert.  

It is also impossible to capture the scope of how large the place was with my little camera phone.

Such a nice vacation!  I enjoyed the Conservatory, and I just enjoyed walking around Las Vegas without needing five layers of winter clothing and snow boots!

Ah, back to the Boston area...

me digging my heated birdbath out of the snow

Did you hear that after tomorrow's winter storm, we are supposed to break the 107.6" record for the most snow in a season ever?  Lucky us...