A touch of the tropics on a rainy day

Agapetes 'Ludgvan Cross' is an amazing member of the heather family; the form of its delicately striped flowers reminds me of glass vases of the Art Nouveau-period.

With so many plants already blooming in gardens, I shouldn't be complaining, but the tireless rain makes enjoying them challenging. So yesterday, we took ourselves to the Volunteer Park Conservatory. It is one of my favorite garden haunts in Seattle, an classic, old-fashioned greenhouse with great selection of ferns, palms, cacti och other exotics. As I've already written its story (we'll at least a short version of it...) earlier, I won't be repeating any of it here, I'll just show some of the treats we found yesterday. If only they would have turtles and butterflies, the whole family would be pretty well catered for...

The lush displays of the five rooms of the greenhouse are continuosly updated with seasonal displays of flowering plants with well-coordinated colours.*

Some kind of an Impatiens, I think; I couldn't find the name tag of this plant with delicate, pinkish white flowers.*

Even the fly-eating plants, Saracenia alata, were in full bloom; I've never seen them flowering before.*

An unspecified member of the Ficus-family, with bright, leathery, orange fruit growing along its erect stems.*

Tiny flowers of variegated Devil's backbone, Pedilanthus tithymaloides variegata (well, that's a mouthfull...), this amazingly sculptural plant in the cacti room comes from Mexico.*

And another beauty from the cacti room; Pachypodium succulentum from Africa; I think its flowers are amazingly similar to pelagoniums.

**And finally, another angle of the interior of the beautiful fern house.