Getting The January Stink Off at Tower Hill

January can be a cruel month in central CT.  If you're lucky average daytime highs hover around freezing.  The ground is typically snow covered and prevailing wind chills are cold enough to freeze your thoughts.  For most of the month the sun rises well after 7 and sets before 5.  No doubt there are worse places to spend January, and if you live in one of them you not only have my sympathy but my promise that you will never have to worry that I may become one of your neighbors.

My patio in January 2011.  Not a January Nick (or my back for that matter) cares to repeat anytime soon.

Every so often January tosses a curve ball though and behaves more like late February or early March.  By no means am I an advocate for global warming.  But I have to admit I feel positively giddy over the prospect of the forty and fifty degree weather we are currently experiencing.  Somebody pinch me!  Anybody but Al Gore.

Last Sunday morning as I sat swilling coffee while watching Meet The Press I came to the conclusion that the day needed to hold more for me than laundry and cleaning.  Why not a trip to Tower Hill Botanical Garden in West Boylston, MA?  Not only do they have cool plants but they serve food.  Although it was short notice, I tossed out an invitation on Facebook and was able to get two friends to meet me there.

Tower Hill is a horticultural gem hidden away in suburban central Massachusetts, about an hour and fifteen minute drive from my house.  In addition to the outdoor gardens and indoor Orangerie and Limonaia, there is also a library, a cafe and miles of nature and hiking trails.  During the growing season, many of the display gardens are creatively planted with unusual tropical and annuals.  If I were to make a list of places in Southern New England where you could most likely get rid of the January stink, Tower Hill would be at the top.   

No we're not in Kansas anymore, we're in Massachusetts

All of the plants are in containers

Roses bloom in January in the Orangerie at Tower Hill

Oranges in the Orangerie

View of the Systematic Garden from inside.  Check out what it will look like in a few months HERE

After touring the Orangerie, we enjoyed a leisurely lunch at the cafe then moved on to the Limonaia.

Lisa daydreaming about a tropical paradise

This Bromeliad tree was way cool!

Bird of Paradise in bloom in the Limonaia

Lemon tree very pretty

Believe it or not but the tree is a Euphorbia 'Sticks on Fire'

It was such a nice day that we decided to take a stroll through the lawn gardens.

A pair of Paperbark Maples (Acer griseum) flanking a large Pieris

What are they looking at?

I love the reflecting pool and turtle fountain located in the winter garden between the Orangerie and Limonaia. 

View of the Orangerie from Domitian's pool in the winter garden.  The turtles are named Castor and Pollux.

Don't ask

What do you think?  Is a visit to Tower Hill a great way to spend a sunny forty degree day in early January or what?  If the weather gurus are correct, we are being led to believe that temperatures in the fifties can be expected this coming weekend.  If anybody has suggestions as to where I can go or what I can do, I'm open.

Sue~