[Zoomie]

While returning home from Repticon/Charlotte, Mrs. Zoomie and I spent the morning at the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens in Belmont, NC. While the grounds were very nice, it was the orchid conservatory that made my heart go pitter-patter. At 10,000 square feet and 5 stories in height, it is the ultimate dream PDF enclosure. From a beginner's perspective, it was amazing.

Here are a few pics. Many of things that I was interested in did not have ID tags. I apologize in advance for being species ignorant on much of this stuff.
Also, picture quality is crap. I apologize. I was trying to avoid blinding white flash at all costs.

These Tilandsia balls were neat.

Heard to see but it was nice to know that if we got locked in, we had all of the bananas that we could eat.

Mrs. Zoomie posing in front of what may be the coolest potential PDF tank in history. As you can tell, Mrs. Zoomie just loves having her picture taken. On the fun scale, I believe that she places it somewhere between being married to me and a mammogram.

Here are the individual sections of the enclosure:

Just something that caught my eye:

The Broms were to die for. These were 18 inches in diameter:

This flowering Brom was absolutely stunning:

Now THIS is a water feature:

Huge arches completely covered in Tils. I begged Mrs Zoomie to let me pry off a few and stash in her purse, but she said that her talents would be better utilized gathering bail money for me:

This Til was at least 2 feet tall:

Another incredible Brom. Interestingly, many of the broms were getting very little light:

Anyone interested in climbing this Ceiba Speciosa aka Floss Silk Tree?

The mother of all Broms, Alcanterea Imperialis aka Red Imperial Bromiliad. You can clearly note the shock and awe factor by the expression on my face. This thing was a beast

We had a great time. We enjoyed it so much that we plan to head down to ABG and check it out.

 

[Vagabond324]

very Nice Zoomie, your Missus looks a s happy as mine does when the camera lens turns her way. That's a pretty wild place, all it needed was some butterflies and humming birds flying about. Thanks for sharing.

 

[guppygal]

I LOVE it!

Thanks for sharing

 

[GRIMM]

My god, I really need to move somewhere nicer...

Thanks for posting man! Nice to see people getting more personable here. I would be there every weekend if it was within driving distance.

 

[Zoomie]

very Nice Zoomie, your Missus looks a s happy as mine does when the camera lens turns her way. That's a pretty wild place, all it needed was some butterflies and humming birds flying about. Thanks for sharing.

Actually, they had a huge field planted just for butterflies, along with a butterfly house.

They did manage to to accurately present the rain forest environment with real mosquitos to gnaw on us.

 

[Zoomie]

My god, I really need to move somewhere nicer...

Thanks for posting man! Nice to see people getting more personable here. I would be there every weekend if it was within driving distance.

Thanks Grimm. I wasn't sure if anyone would even care as so many species are just too big to meet our enclosure needs. The thing that amazed me was trying to fathom how many work hours it took to maintain the place. If it wasn't for the mosquitos eating me alive, i could wandered around in the place all day.

And I shudder to think of the diabolical tank ideas you would come up with in this place.

 

[jacobi]

Wow. Wow again.

Ten letters

 

[Hornet]

wow, thats amazing, wonder if we have anything like that here in australia

 

[BethInAK]

John, you and Mrs Zoomie are two of my favorite characters on the internet, thank you so much for sharing these amazing pictures and your amazing sense of humor. I'm in love with the orchid cabinets.

 

[josh_r]

I have an alcantarea imperialis almost as big as that one sitting in my room right now. Damn thing takes up way too much space! But I love it! My mom named it Charlie

 

[Rhesus Feist]

Actually, they had a huge field planted just for butterflies, along with a butterfly house.

They did manage to to accurately present the rain forest environment with real mosquitos to gnaw on us.

Were they malaria mosquitos to complete the realism?

 

[Zoomie]

The place really was amazing.

Hornet, surely there are botanical gardens in Australia.

Beth, thank you. Sweet of you to say. We can laugh through life or we can cry. I ran out of Kleenex long ago.

Josh, that thing was a beast. I cannot imagine having one indoors. It's about the size of a beanbag chair.

Rhesus Feist, I am unsure about Malaria. Sadly, all those that bit me died very quickly. I have man cooties and at this time, there is no cure.