Missouri Wildflowers Nursery

Missouri Wildflowers Nursery is a wonderful place to visit and to select plants that are naturally inclined to do well here in Missouri.  Closed for now, these pictures were taken on the last weekend they were going to be open as we headed into winter.  In a matter of weeks they will reopen for you to make selections for spring planting.

Native Bamboo or switch cane (Arundinaria gigantea tecta) for more pictures if this plant growing in the wild see the Pinnacles Youth Park story.

Here is some information from their web site:

We sell native Missouri perennials, both seeds & plants. Our plants are nursery propagated. Missouri is the genetic origin, so they are best adapted to states east of the Rockies. View our plants online or come visit us. Our website species lists (found under "Plants & Pricing") are the most up-to-date of what is available at anytime. New & out of stock items will appear here first.

 I think native plants are a neat idea and a practical one as well.  We plan on purchasing a good number of specimens from the nursery and moving our yard to more native species over the next couple of years.  In addition to their web site they have a very useful, and user friendly, catalog.


 Contact Information:

9814 Pleasant Hill Road
Jefferson City, MO 65109-9409
(573) 496-3492

Knotty Pine Resort: Lake of the Ozarks

The Lake of the Ozarks is about an hour away from Columbia and is a great place, within a reasonable distance, to visit for day trips, weekend vacations, or even longer.  This resort was about an hour and thirty minutes from our house in Columbia.

 

There are many, dozens, of resorts at the Lake of the Ozarks and the Knotty Pine Resort was one Jenifer and I visited together in the early fall.  Off season rates were in effect and we had a wonderful time, this is when we visited Ha Ha Tonka State Park, and enjoyed our stay here.

Price included two bedrooms and a full kitchen.  You do have to bring your own towels to this particular resort and I suggest you bring some dish towels as well.  It was very clean.

 

  

I  enjoyed the cable television since we do not have it at home.  But, now days CNN gets tiresome pretty quickly.

View Larger Map

AMTRAK Station at Jefferson City

The closest AMTRAK station to Columbia is in Jefferson City.   These pictures are in order from walking down to the station, looking around a bit, and then entering then exiting the waiting room.  The station is ran by volunteers. 


The first two pictures are of some historic buildings as you approach the tracks and the station proper.

These pictures were taken down at the tracks.

These are pictures of the waiting and ticket area.

A favorite trip of mine is to take the kids on a train trip from Jefferson City into St. Louis. Then my wife will meet us at the downtown station.  It is a lot of fun and highly recommended especially if  you, or  your children, have not traveled by train. 

Shelter Gardens

This is from a Shelter Insurance web page:

Arguably the most well-known feature of Shelter's corporate office is Shelter Insurance Gardens. Just beyond the beautiful stone-and-wrought-iron gates are five acres containing over 300 varieties of trees and shrubs and more than 15,000 annuals and perennials. The gardens are open to the public daily between 8 a.m. and dusk (except Christmas Day, when the gardens are closed).

I have been visiting this Columbia attraction for years and have included here pictures from the last three years.  As we head into winter this is a reminder of warm times, and beautiful flowers, to come.   This is a must see and a wonderful place to picnic, or just relax.  All four of my kids have made frequent trips to the Shelter Insurance compound to visit the garden, sit by the water fountain at night, or enjoy the summer concerts. 

Make sure to check out my other story about the wonderful fountains that Shelter Insurance also maintains.

Entryway into the gardens.

Pathways.

Elephant Ears

 Flowers

The school house pictures:

I am very thankful that Shelter Insurance has made a decision to keep the gardens open.  This along with the fountain, which was mentioned in another  story I referred to earlier, make them a good corporate neighbor to  have in our community.

Make sure to visit.  How can you loose with beautiful scenery in this Columbia landmark that is free and open to the public?