Hi GPODers. This is Joseph, your GPOD editor. I recently took a trip to Stillwater, Oklahoma, and thought I’d share some of the beautiful garden scenes I got to enjoy while there.

My first stop in town was the botanic garden at Oklahoma State University. It was full of a lot of gorgeous things, but I maybe loved this planting the best. In a hot, sunny spot, it was planted up with cacti and other drought-adapted plants.

Rising up out the bed are these incredible planters made from metal pipe and old plow discs, each one home to a beautiful cactus specimen.

These cacti are tender and have to spend the winter in the greenhouse. They are a perfect choice for these planters, as they are fine with a small amount of soil that will dry out easily.

There are many different areas within the botanic garden. This is a scene from the Japanese garden, which was cool and restful. A resident cat was clearly a big fan of it as well.

There are also hardy cacti growing in ground. This is a species of hedgehog cactus (genus Echinocereus) I think, thriving in a dry rock garden area.

My next stop was the great nursery Bustani Plant Farm, which grows all sorts of beautiful and unusual plants and, even better, has a great display garden so that you can see the plants growing. It is such a great way to introduce local gardener to new plants. This section includes many water-wise selections, including this gorgeous Artemisia ‘Silver Bullet’.

The plant in the foreground of this image from the rock garden at Bustani is Zinnia angustifolia, an annual species that is very drought tolerant and looks beautiful all summer long.

The rock garden is loaded down with flowers. The yellow flower is a native annual helenium (Helenium amarum) that blooms all summer and, when it is happy (as it is here), self-sows.

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