One afternoon, after visiting the Mitchell Domes with Emily, I sent my “foster family,” Brian and Diane Mitchell a postcard that said, “here is a place with your name all over it.”
The Mitchell Park Horticultural Conservatory, also known as “The Domes” is located at the pretty Mitchell Park in Milwaukee, overlooking the Milwaukee River.
The three domes display a huge and amazing variety of plant life; a desert oasis, a tropical jungle and floral gardens.
Our first stop in The Domes, after a cool courtyard with some fun sculptures and a huge human sundial was the floral dome, which seemed the most teeming with life, probably owing to all the brilliant and lively flower types and displays and many small pools and mini waterfalls. I assume the many hours I have spent at the flower shop here in my hometown, and my trip to Hawaii in 2011 helped me identify many kinds of flowers.
In the next dome, Emily and I saw and discovered many cacti, succulents, shrubs and desert palms. She was familiar with quite a few more of the plants than I was, due to her living in the high desert of Southern California for most of her life. Emily also collected a few samples of hot peppers while I chased the resident pigeons around the paths.
The available literature and brochures indicated that there were over 1,200 species of tropical plants, including chocolate, banana and vanilla plants in the third and final section we visited, the tropical dome, but I quickly lost count. I was however favorably impressed by the huge coy pond in the middle of the displays, and overall workmanship that it took to make a jungle experience in this dome versus the other two.
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