Hort Park

[Sunday 21 Feb--]  This afternoon we made a quick trip to Hort Park, or "Horticulture Park", which is one of the four parks in the Southern Ridges parks.  This isn't exactly a park in the sense of a reserve-- more of a garden center.  It is an area dedicated to gardens, garden design and horticulture.  Within the boundaries of the park are buildings housing a restaurant, rooms for education seminars, and a plant shop.  This is the place to go if you are interested in gardens and horticulture, or are planning a garden and want to get ideas. 
Walking around the park, there are small garden plots that are miniature examples of various garden designs.  Apparently there are design contests during the year, and small plots are assigned to entrants for their garden design.  There is also a building housing a butterfly zoo, of indigenous butterflies.  Unfortunately this was not open when we visited, although we looked in through the glass-- we need to return some time.
There are fountains and ponds in the garden with Koi and, if I am correct-- Toman-- the asian snakehead fish that is apparently prized for ponds.  (This fish has an accessary "lung" which allows it to breath air--  it is extremely hardy during drought conditions.  There have been a couple of cases recently where they were found in lakes in the United States, which has resulted in putting a huge scare into the Fish & Game guys.  These fish are really tenacious, eat the locals, and are very difficult to get rid of once they are established.)
Elaine hopes to get plants for our patio deck, both to green up our place, and hopefully provide a little bit of sound buffer coming from the road below.

If I am correct this is a Toman-- the snakehead.

Tortoise planter at the Hort Park

This is the shrimp bush

A granite penguin in one of the display design gardens