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Welcome Spring with a Visit to Kansas Gardens and Plant Stores

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Nothing says spring like the rows upon rows of beautiful plants and flowers. Kansas is home to a number of bountiful gardens open to the public to enjoy. And for those with a green thumb who enjoy caring for their own garden, there are plenty of plant stores to inspire their landscapes.

BOTANICA, WICHITA

Get lost in the stunning beauty of nature as you tour over 18 acres of plants and statuary at Botanica Wichita (701 N. Amidon). Even after several visits, you will discover something new every time you walk through the gardens. Don’t miss the children’s garden and the Koch Carousel Gardens.

I love walking the paved paths as they wind through different thematic garden spaces. Keep your eyes peeled for Kansas native flowers and birds. Sculptures dot the landscape. You can take a self-guided walk through the gardens or schedule a seasonal garden tour or carousel experience here. Wear comfy shoes or inquire about golf cart personalized tours.

BARLETT ARBORETUM, BELLE PLAINE

Located in Sumner County, Bartlett Arboretum (301 N. Line Street) is a 20-minute drive from Wichita. Popular events like the TreeHouse Concert Season, Tulip Time, and Art at the Arb keep die-hard fans coming back every year. It’s a natural wonderland for photographers hoping to catch colorful backdrops of tulips in the spring or fall foliage in the fall. Photographers are encouraged to schedule a Thursday evening session.

The nature sanctuary and historic landmark is open on weekends from 9am-5pm seasonally. Check the Facebook page to view updated information about craft workshops and events.

TED ENSLEY GARDENS, TOPEKA

What could be better than panoramic views of Lake Shawnee near a garden filled with nature’s vibrant colors? Ted Ensley Gardens (3650 SE West Edge Rd) are open to the public on nearly 37 acres of well-manicured land. Bring your camera, your leashed dog, and the entire family for a stroll through the gardens.

Over 1, 500 species of flowers and plants, trails, and rock gardens are maintained by volunteers. Visitors will lose track of time as they meander through tulip lined paths. Plan your visit from 6am-11pm during peak season and don’t miss Tulip Time, a popular event.

GROW, WICHITA

During a visit to Pratt, I toured Giesen Greenhouse filled with plants and cacti. The owner brings her plants to the retail store in Wichita, Grow (320 S. Market Suite S), with every kind of plant you can imagine. It’s a houseplant lover’s dream.

Think of Grow as one-stop shopping for succulents, houseplants, and cacti. She doesn’t sell the typical plants you’d find in a big box store but instead caters to green thumbs wanting unique plants. The shop is well-stocked with gifts for plant enthusiasts from notecards and magnets to coffee mugs and jewelry. View the Facebook page to view the store’s hours.

VALLEY FLORAL CO., KECHI

In an inconspicuous warehouse building in the heart of Kechi sits one of the largest plant stores I’ve ever seen. Valley Floral Co. (6200 N. Oliver) is well-praised on social media for its vast inventory of every kind of plant imaginable. They were known as a greenhouse with rows of baskets and plants to sell to commercial stores, but now they also are open to the public for retail sale most days of the week.

Prepare your car with a blanket because you’re bound to leave the store with potted plants and flower baskets. It’s a nice place to shop for a gift for someone, especially for Mother’s Day. View their hours here before heading to Kechi.

FAMILY TREE NURSERY, SHAWNEE

Whether you’re a novice gardener or a plant expert, Family Tree Nursery (7036 Nieman Rd) is the place to shop for botanicals and garden tools. During the holiday season, the retail store becomes a winter wonderland with a magical display of decorated Christmas trees. Visit during their fall event to enjoy live music and food.

Since 1981, the Shawnee location has attracted customers to the garden center. Café Equinox serves coffee drinks and locally baked pastries. At the time of this blog post’s publication, the cafe was undergoing renovations.

THE STONE CHIMNEY, MCPHERSON

If you’re someone who doesn’t like the upkeep of live plants, I recommend shopping at The Stone Chimney (1500 E. 1st St.). The popular McPherson store carries a large inventory of silk plants and flowers. They are known for taking special orders for silk floral arrangements.

A backroom is filled with high-end candles and more home decor. In the main retail spaces, you’ll discover bath and body products, jewelry, and battery-operated candles and lanterns.

THE LITTLE SHOP, WICHITA

The Little Shop (310 S. Ellis) is a happy little place filled with healthy houseplants, potting supplies, and gifts. The store is located inside a converted residential home outfitted with colorful front porch chairs. Ferns, fiddle leaf figs, you name it, she probably carries it.

The owner is passionate about plants, so feel free to ask her questions about caring for your new find. If you can’t make it to the store, she sells plant-inspired gifts online at discounted prices.

THE FLOWER SHOPPE, PRATT

A short jaunt away from Main Street, I encourage you to visit The Flower Shoppe (201 E. 4th St.). Florist Lou Lynne Moss has been designing silk and fresh floral arrangements for happy customers for years. After you place your custom order, cruise through the shop to select from the beautiful decor.

Every corner of the store has something that you’ll want to add to your shopping haul. It’s a delightful store! Don’t be surprised if you’re greeted with puppy kisses from the story’s mascot, Louie, the pug.

WORLD WIDE CACTUS AND EXOTICS, WICHITA

It’s a small space, but there are a lot of plants ready for a new home at World Wide Cactus and Exotics (2630 E. Central). Specializing in “cool plants and good vibes,” the store is filled with tiered rows of new arrivals.

The owners are generous and often give away free plants and cuttings. So check their Instagram or Facebook page for details before driving to the store to stock up on all your favorites. The store is open 11am-7pm Monday-Saturday.

This is a small sampling of the gardens and stores across the state where you can surround yourself with nature. Do you know of a scenic public garden that should be added to the list? Where do you spend your dollars locally when shopping for houseplants? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below.

If like me you love plants but you’re not the best at keeping them alive, check out 10 Hard to Kill Houseplants You Can Leave While on Vacation. Never feel guilty again.

 

5 Ways I Spoil Myself + Self-Care Tips for You

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Sometimes you have to put yourself first.

Pampering yourself is necessary to regain perspective, to boost your confidence, and to hit the reset button now and then. If that means that you spoil yourself by splurging on a night out with friends or restocking your closet with a new wardrobe, then by all means – celebrate you!

I used to do nice things for myself only when I thought I deserved it. For example, if I passed a major college exam or got a raise at work, I would convince myself I had “earned” the right to do spoil myself. As I matured, I realized that self-preservation doesn’t mean I have to justify buying a new spring wardrobe or a vacation somewhere. Giving back to yourself is a part of self-care.

Is it time for you to pay it forward to yourself?

I bet you’re like me in that you give so much of yourself to work, family, and your household that you seldom give thought to yourself and how you’re feeling. Time constraints keep so many of us from giving back to ourselves. Check out 5 Ways I Spoil Myself below and I’ll bet you discover at least one way you to pamper yourself without spending a ton of time doing it!

  1. Birthday Meal. I always treat myself to a delicious lunch at one of my favorite restaurants on my birthday. Even if I have to dine alone, because all of my favorite people are stuck at work, I’ll dine on my city’s best nachos, fattoush salad, or pizza. In my twenties, I once filled an entire table at The Mad Greek in Lawrence, Kansas with a spread of Mediterranean  favorites including a cocktail on my birthday! Why? Because I was celebrating me!
  2. StitchFix. Life is too short for me to spend another minute hating myself for having to cut through crowds at the mall to find staple clothing items. Enter…StitchFix! Every month I receive my “fix” in the mail that includes five clothing or accessories to add to my closet. I’m like a kid on Christmas when the green and white box arrives with hand-selected items from my personal stylist. If I don’t like something, I simply mail it back. It’s great!
  3. Hair Color. The first time I had an Aveda stylist color my hair and give me a scalp massage at the shampoo bowl, I was hooked. I didn’t need to spend another minute contemplating hair color options in the drugstore aisle. Now my trusted stylist colors my hair and you can see the difference. The cost of paying a professional to color my hair leaves it feeling soft and looking healthy.
  4. Flowers. Ain’t nobody got time to wait for someone else to buy them flowers! Buy them for yourself! Every month I purchase a bouquet of marked down flowers to add to our home. It makes me happy to see bright colors across the room and that level happiness is worth $5 any day.
  5. Gourmet Food. You know me, I love yummy food. So it’s no surprise that I would spoil myself by throwing some fancy cheese or a few expensive condiments into my shopping cart. Why deny yourself sushi or fresh mozzarella? Just buy it every once in a while and relish in the satisfaction of your purchase while you devour it!

You deserve to walk around in this world a happier person even if it means going the extra mile to spoil yourself. I’m not suggesting you waste your next paycheck on all of your favorite things in the name of “self-care.” Instead, select one or two activities that bring you joy and add them into your life on a regular basis. You’ll feel more delightful overall!

 

Garden House Showcase: A Special Place for Mom

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My mom is quite talented at a lot of things. When guests come over she rolls out the red carpet with the some of the most delicious meals. Even if you’ve dropped by the house mid-day, she’ll serve you a delicious cheese and fruit platter and pour you a glass of Chardonnay. Yea, she’s that kind of hostess.

But don’t be surprised if you knock on the door and she doesn’t answer. She’s most likely outside in her custom built garden house doing what she does best…gardening. Make no mistake. This is no She Shed. She refuses to let people label it as such. This is a real-deal garden house where she spends time cultivating her craft – making her gardens flourish. Whether she is sitting in the screened in porch chair reading about rose bushes or potting plants in the stainless steel sink, her green thumb is at work.

Located behind my parent’s home, mom’s garden house often entices strangers driving by to stop and ask to see it.

It seems only fair that my step-dad, who has his own woodworking shop, would build a garden house for her, right? The 8’x12′ house (not including the 5’x12′ screened in porch) includes the same amenities that any home would have including running water and electricity. During the winter it houses plants she wants to keep alive from the outdoor elements and during the summer the sun beams in on oversized house plants.

I recognize quite a bit of my mom’s style in her garden house’s design from the upcycled screen door to the ceiling light fixture that she held on to for years until this house was built.

Mom’s garden house is an extension of her own home. The interior’s neutral colors, off-set by the bright white counter tops and trimmed windows, includes various green hues from decorative additions and dark black metal pieces. Having collected many of the sitabouts over time, she decorates in a style more sophisticated than rustic farmhouse but less stuffy than classic traditional. She has an eclectic sense of design style that is uniquely her own.

Once inside the screened in porch, glass French doors remain welcome you into a spacious window lit space.
Muted green wicker chairs flank both sides of the screened in porch to the east and the west.

When not busy nurturing plants, she uses the garden house as a quiet refuge to read or just watch her many bird feeders in the yard over a glass of wine. When friends visit on occasion, like her Bunco gal pals, it serves as a getaway space to venture to between games for a quick tour. You can hear the women audibly dote over each detail of the garden house. They want one too. Who wouldn’t?

A serious gardner needs a space to pour over the details found in gardening books. Always the humble student, my mom enjoys learning why some plants and flowers flourish and how she can attract or eliminate insects.

Mom’s appreciation of nature goes back as far as I can remember.

“It (gardening) feeds my soul in a way nothing else does. I’m connected to plants in new says every year,” she said recently.

My childhood was spent watching her in the yard with her hands in the dirt on weekends. After coming home from school we would drag around the hose to water thick, layered flower beds of all colors and varieties. Sunflowers towered over our heads and wildflowers nestled at our feet. She would tell me about butterflies that she adored and the grasshoppers that broke her heart.

Today, she still sees beauty in the colors of delicate flowers and enjoys the harvest of a vegetable or herb garden. Her accepted challenge each year is to learn about the needs of plant placement in her landscape while always attempting to attract birds, bees, and insects.

Antique pottery and her favorite pieces adorn a shelf above the door inside the garden house.
The east side of the garden house exposes an area behind it where she also pots plants and flowers.
The wooden table on the right was her only potting station at our old house.

Gardening is not easy. She admits that the challenge is to find the balance between what she wants to plant and what nature will allow. Admittedly, she says there are more failures to learn every season and enough small successes to keep her happy.

I love spring and wish it lasted longer, she says.

It’s true. She smiles the most in the spring (with college basketball season in a close second place). When the weather begins to warm up and the days spring forward, she is more outdoors than she is indoors. I often call her to wish her a “Happy Spring” only for it to go to voicemail because she’s outside playing in the yard.

While I love the outdoors, I’m not a natural gardener. I struggle to keep plants alive. I either over or under water them. Completely forget about them. I never installed the proper drip system. Can a person’s “green thumb” be learned? Maybe I just wrote it off as “mom’s hobby.” I should have really paid more attention when helping her in the yard as a teen. Just last week I called her seeking advice about our sad rose bushes. Before I knew it, I was at her house on my hands and knees pruning her rose bushes while she used wood glue on the stem ends to prevent bores for invading them again. Glue? Who knew!

A rusty garden tool serves as a door knocker on the exterior of the garden house.

I’m “foodie” thanks to my mom’s love of cooking. In fact, many of her garden harvests end up in her recipes. Ripe tomatoes are the star ingredient in her homemade gazpacho, a cool treat during a blazing hot summer day. Fresh herbs like rosemary and thyme find their way into many of her savory recipes. This year she has decided to trade her tomato plants for perennials because it’s just less to have to worry about and each year perennials come back stronger when given the space to spread out.

I’ve have so much to learn from her wisdom about nature, about plants and birds. As I mentioned before, I’m at best a wannabe gardener. In fact, I’ve killed so many house plants over the years that if there is every going to be any hope for me, I’m going to have to spend more time with mom in the garden house. If you’re more like me, you’ll appreciate a post she helped me write last summer 10 Hard to Kill Houseplants You Can Leave While on Vacation.

But not every day can be spent gardening. Sometimes the body needs a day of rest between the hours spent digging in unforgiving soil and pulling weeds away from flowers. On these days, she takes time to let her body relax but we all know she is still thinking about her next outdoor project.

A water drip system was installed for her window boxes, which extends to the container pots near the garden house entrance.

What can we learn from mom’s garden house? Every woman, every person, needs a space to call their own. Where they can go to escape the chaos of the day and appreciate some quiet time or just enjoy their hobby.

Looking west from inside.

What is it that brings you peace? What do you enjoy learning about most? Tell me in the comments section how you pursue your hobby or where you like to spend quiet time.