A picturesque walkway lined with white tulip beds and cypress trees. | Joshua Cochran/The Cougar
Prickly pear cactuses foreground a clump of Texas bluebonnets. | Joshua Cochran/The Cougar
Showy camellia blooms poke out of a bush of dense, shiny leaves. | Joshua Cochran/The Cougar
A stone Japanese lantern sits at the edge of the grove. Since the botanic gardens close before sundown, it isn’t seen in use. | Joshua Cochran/The Cougar
Bamboo grows in thickets so dense that little sunlight reaches the ground. | Joshua Cochran/The Cougar
A close-up of the white tulips, which favor bright sun and drier soils. | Joshua Cochran/The Cougar
Spring in Texas is fleeting, with most wildflowers beat by the heat before school’s out for summer. If you didn’t get a chance to go out and enjoy some of the sun, sky and thriving plants, don’t worry; I’ve done it for you.
The Mercer Arboretum and Botanic Gardens are nestled in the old pine woods of Humble, about an hour from downtown. Like the rest of Texas in recent summers, the arboretum and gardens have suffered loss of trees due to a prevailing drought, but there are more than enough areas of the park that are alive and blooming.
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