More butterflies and Halloween scarecrows at San Antonio Botanical Garden

November 11, 2018


I’ve shown you the fabulous new gardens at San Antonio Botanical Garden that have opened over the past year — the culinary and entry gardens and the Family Adventure Garden — but there is more to see in the original gardens. During my visit at the end of October, Halloween scarecrows were on display in the Children’s Vegetable Garden, adding color and personality behind a white picket fence and flowering ‘Indigo Spires’ salvia.


Day of the Dead skeleton scarecrow


Monarchs were fueling up for their migration to Mexico.


This ballerina scarecrow seems to be dancing her way through a dry garden of beaked yucca, prickly pear, and palms.


She looks a bit like a zombie ballerina, doesn’t she?


Another spooky scarecrow is Oogie Boogie, a character from The Nightmare Before Christmas, crawling with colorful spiders.


Pumpkins were scattered through the gardens too, like this pair by a pretty birdbath.


The inverted pyramid of the birdbath basin plays off the pyramidal conservatory in the distance — nice!


Turk’s cap — ‘Big Momma’ I think — was in full bloom.


Argentine saguaros giving the finger to a prickly pear-roofed pavilion atop an overlook.


SABG has several large conservatories, which I confess I rarely visit. I’d rather be outside in a garden, and our winters aren’t harsh enough to seek out heated shelters. I did stop to admire a perennial garden in full flower.


Mexican oregano and soap aloe in bloom


A LEGO hummingbird-and-flower sculpture sits amid tawny grasses


I like this colorful garden strip with purple heart, ornamental grass (maybe a panicum?), and autumn sage.


Purple heart and autumn sage


Queen butterflies nectaring on blue mistflower, just a few of the hundreds of butterflies I observed at SABG that day.


Even the parking lot landscaping at SABG’s new visitor entrance is beautiful, with masses of sandpaper verbena, artemisia, and Gulf muhly.


Firecracker fern too

This concludes my posts from my recent visit to San Antonio Botanical Garden. For a look back at the enticing Family Adventure Garden at SABG, click here.

I welcome your comments; please scroll to the end of this post to leave one. If you’re reading this in a subscription email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment box at the end of each post.
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5 responses to “More butterflies and Halloween scarecrows at San Antonio Botanical Garden”

  1. I find that I save my visits to indoor conservatories until the end of winter, when I just can’t stand another day of the cold gloom. For a short while I’m able to pretend winter doesn’t exist.

  2. Kylee Baumle says:

    PAM! Those queens!! That photo is AMAZING. I wish we had queens here. Although then I’d be dealing with people saying they’d seen monarchs when they really hadn’t. It’s bad enough with the viceroys. LOL. But wow, that photo is just WOW. I love it so much.

  3. peter schaar says:

    My M. ‘Big Mama’ is in full bloom as I type this. And is that a Dasylirion quadrangular behind Oogie Boogie?

  4. Kris P says:

    Okay, I think maybe a Fling in San Antonio would be appropriate one year. I’ve love to see this botanic garden in person some time. I loved everything, from the imaginative scarecrows to the inverted pyramid birdbath to the mass of butterflies.

  5. Lisa at Greenbow says:

    Looking at these pictures you can’t tell it is autumn except for the scarecrows. Loved seeing all of these blooms on a frozen day here.