The quest to complete forty items from my 40 Before the Big 4-0 continued over the weekend with a trip to Powell Gardens. According to their website, Powell Gardens' history began in 1948, when George E. Powell, Sr., a prominent Kansas City businessman, acquired the beautiful tract of land that is now Powell Gardens. In 1969, in keeping with his stewardship philosophy, Mr. Powell donated the 640-acre farm to the Kansas City Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America, who used it as a regional camp until 1984.
In 1984, with the University of Missouri’s School of Agriculture as a catalyst and partner, the Powell Family Foundation began developing a horticultural and natural resource facility called Powell Center. As a part of this development, Powell Center retained Pittsburgh, Pa.-based Environmental Planning and Design, the leading U.S. consultants for botanical gardens. The firm recognized that the site would be ideal for development as a botanical garden.
The grounds offer a 3.5 acre Perennial Garden, a 12 acre Heartland Harvest Garden, a 3.25 mile nature trail, a Rock and Waterfall Garden, an Island Garden that displays over 200 varieties of water plants and a Chapel that is made entirely of clear glass.
I first discovered Powell Gardens when driving to visit my parents when they lived in Jefferson City, MO. The garden sits off of Highway 50 and I passed it for over 12 years. And, every time we passed it, I would tell Joel "We need to stop sometime and visit." And that's what we did this past weekend. Every year, the garden offers a butterfly exhibit and it was amazing! We had been talking about the butterflies, or y-ys as McKinley calls them, for about a month and he was so excited to visit. It was more fun watching him! He would point, talk animatedly about them and literally scurry from one to the next.
Once on the grounds, he could have cared less about the flowers. And, because of how vast the area is, we knew we would never see everything in one day. A trip, or two or three, is in our future. It truly is a wonderful place to see!
Below are photos of the butterflies, the LEGO exhibit currently on display and some of the other sites we saw along the way!
Look closely...that tiny white dot on the upper leaf (toward the bottom of the stem) is a butterfly egg!!!
He loved the exhibit!
He loves waterfalls!
This one landed on my hat!!!
Just look at how big this moth is! Larger than my hand!
McKinley was able to pant his own flower pot! Look at that concentration!
I love him!!!
Helping me plant his new flower!
Number 30 is officially crossed off the list!
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