We have been to New Orleans 5 or 6 times. I can’t remember LOL – but we have never visited the botanical garden. Part of it was not knowing it existed earlier, but also not thinking about gardens in January. Things actually bloom in the south during winter, who knew?

Our day started with a couple of pastries at Croissant D’Or:

This is a nice cozy place. We went here twice, actually.

We knew the gardens would be a little quiet, but definitely worth the trip. Admission is $8. The garden is part of City Park and 10 acres in size. So, not huge, but right in the city. We took a bus from the French Quarter to City Park and then walked through the park to the garden.

Being winter, there were not many people. It was also chilly and cloudy, so that probably played a factor as well.

Wall o’ plants:

These were young plants that weren’t really blooming yet. This wall will be covered in flowers later this year. I bet it looks amazing!

During the summer, the garden has a working mini train area.

This is something I would love to do in my garden.

There are actually groups that are dedicated to train gardens and how to build them. Like I need *another* project…

Peek through a greenhouse window:

A Japanese garden:

You can see this tree has weights on the branches so that it shapes their growth:

Then the conservatory area:

It was nice and warm in this building. Very damp, too.

Lots of orchids in bloom. You could just look around and they would be in a tree or rock edge.

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Pitcher plant:

This is a carnivorous plant. Insects get drawn into the nectar in the opening and fall in. They can’t get out and get digested in the belly of the plant. Ick.

It was a nice way to spend the early part of the day. We exited going through the magnolia area, which were just starting to bloom:

So pretty! I’m bummed that our magnolia tree died. Our neighbor planted one last year, but it didn’t look very good at the end of the season, so not sure that will come back.

After a chilly day, we had a nice warm dinner at the Gumbo Shop. They serve many classic NO dishes like jambalaya and etouffee.

I had a classic chicken and sausage gumbo:

John had a vegan gumbo:

His bowl got a little slopped over, so sorry about that picture. It was full of veggies and rice. This is not on the printed menu, but you can ask for it. There is also a vegetarian gumbo. He said it was quite good.

We split a bread pudding after dinner:

The sauce was a little boozy! I actually like my bread pudding better, but it was still good 🙂