Bumble Bee on Lamb’s Ear Flower in my garden (Copyright 2011)

We happen to live not to far from the botanical garden designated as our State botanical garden, the New Jersey Botanical Gardens (NJBG).

Here are some more botanical gardens and other garden spots and events in New Jersey:

Rutgers Gardens
Camden Children’s Garden
Sayen Park Botanical Garden (Hamilton, NJ)
McFaul Environmental Center (Wyckoff, NJ)

In fact, in my search, I found a site that has a long list of gardens to visit in New Jersey, please visit New Jersey Garden Traveler.

Visiting botanical gardens in New Jersey are perfect ideas to add to your weekend outing, vacation or “staycation” schedule.

(Picture from Webshots, click picture for more)

This pretty little flower has somehow found enough soil in a tree to take root and grow. It is this flower that grows wild in the woodlands and along the roadsides of New Jersey. I have some that come up in my garden each year, and though I have to pull some of them, do leave a little patch of them because they are so pretty. Even the heart-shaped leaves are attractive.It took a little doing to get the legislature proclaiming this as New Jersey’s State flower to pass. The first attempt goes as far back as 1913, which passed, but was a designation that would only last a year. Then in 1963 another attempt was made, to no avail. Finally, as recently as 1971, a year after I graduated from high school (“recent” to me anyway) those wonderful garden clubs that are all over our state and others were persistent enough in their requests that the common violet, viola sororia, became the State flower.