Last Tuesday was a free day at the Boerner Botanical Gardens. The tulips are out in full force now and couldn’t be more stunning. While there isn’t too much else blooming at the gardens right now, you’d never know it from these pictures because the tulips are so abundant and so colorful. The free day happened to be chilly, overcast, and rainy, which meant there weren’t many people there and the lighting was perfect for flower photography.
The Milwaukee VA grounds are one of my all-time favorite places in the city. Long-time blog readers who have been with me since my last blog know that it’s been a favorite place for many years now. I used to live very close to the VA and walked through the grounds monthly, if not weekly. Now that I don’t live so close, I don’t get over there as often. The last time I had my camera with me on the VA grounds before this past week was actually Memorial Day weekend 2016, nearly a year ago. When I went to the For the Birds show at the Domes, I made time to stop by the VA grounds as well.
The spring floral show, For the Birds, is up and running at the Mitchell Park Domes through May 29! As always, the Domes did a fabulous job with their featured seasonal show. The flowers are so colorful, and the birds scattered throughout the exhibit add such a sweet touch. A local organization donated the bird feeders and bird houses for the exhibit.
The flowers featured include blue hydrangeas, white Easter lilies, multicolored tulips, and forget-me-nots as well as flowering crabapple trees. (Thank you to the Domes Facebook page for providing this information because I don’t know the names of most flowers.) The birds featured are native to Wisconsin and include robins, red-tailed hawks, mourning doves, loons, and grackles. If you visit with kids, you can pick up scavenger hunt sheets to help you find the different flowers and birds.
Art in Bloom is an annual event at the Milwaukee Art Museum. The four-day festival includes stunning art-inspired floral installations throughout the museum, local vendor and artisan booths, a silent auction, a fashion show, kid-friendly activities, food, and more. Even though Jake and I have been art museum members ever since we moved to southeast WI, somehow I hadn’t made it to Art in Bloom before.
Art in Bloom is crazy, with over 10,000 people in attendance during the four days it runs. But it’s really a neat event. The floral installations are so unique, colorful, and creative. The event features so many different elements that it’s well worth coming into town for the day just to attend. You’ll easily be able to fill an entire afternoon at the museum.
(A side note: I attended Art in Bloom the same week I attended Orchids in Vogue. I’m sharing these two events on separate weeks, so I don’t overwhelm anyone with floral photos.)
I really love the range of interpretation for the floral installations. Some installations are very literal while others are much more freeform. There are about three dozen installations in all. Not surprisingly, it is so hard to pick a favorite. I narrowed down roughly a dozen to share here. But there isn’t one installation that isn’t worth seeing.
I attended Art in Bloom during the first few hours that it was open. The florists were allowed to put the finishing touches on their installations during the first couple of hours Art in Bloom was open to the public. As a result, a number of florists were still there working. It was neat to see them in action and get to hear a few of them talk about their work.
The florist designed a hat to match the dress you see on the left-hand side of the bottom image. How neat is that?
I love birds of paradise flowers!
I absolutely love the way the florist created a square shape with the floral components and included a yellow square of flowers within it.
Finally, the last floral installation I’m featuring is a water scene, complete with ships. The vase the florist chose is so perfect.
Art in Bloom is always held during the final week of March. By the time this post goes live, the 2017 event will be over. Visit the museum website for details about upcoming events, including the Lakefront Festival of Art. I’m so excited for LFOA!
[Disclaimer: The Milwaukee Art Museum did not sponsor me to write this post. I’m simply a resident of southeast WI who loves attending, photographing, and sharing varying events in the area.]
The annual model train show is taking place at the Mitchell Park Domes through the end of March 2017. The Domes always feature the trains between the holiday floral show and the spring floral show. It’s a lot of fun and just perfect for winter and early spring when we’re all looking for something to do outside of the house that doesn’t involve freezing outdoors. The theme for the current train show is The Great Train Robbery. They decked out the entire dome in an old West theme. I love it.
