On my last morning in Oxford, I walked down to the famous Botanic Garden.  It’s small and, dating back to the 1500s, is the oldest botanic garden in England.  It sits on the bank of the river, across from Magdelen College, which conveniently provides for a wonderfully atmospheric tower to loom over the garden.

I naturally headed straight to the water lily house.  I just love them so much.  These massive water lilies from the Amazon are my favourites — they’re huge (a small child could sit on them) and they fertilise themselves with sex-changing flowers that bloom male on the first day, entrap pollinating insects when they close at night, and then reopen the second day as females ready to receive the fertilising pollen from the insects as they escape their captivity.

From there I strolled through the educational beds that taught me all about the classification of flowers — and which also were pretty.

And I snapped some ideas for future use — such as this combination of allium and lavender.