Q: What do you call two monkeys that share an Amazon account?
A: Prime mates.
Technically this is another Friday time travel post, but this time I'm not sharing an NPA garden tour, but instead a trip I took into Seattle last September to see inside the Amazon Spheres. I shared some of these photos on Instagram at the time, but never got around to posting them on the blog.
Who should we invite to join us this time? How about my favorite Amazon, Diana Prince aka Wonder Woman?
In general, the Amazon Spheres are open to the public twice a month, on Saturdays, but only a month in advance, and you have to go to the website and book an appointment. Right now they are booking for Saturday, April 6, and there are only a few slots left late in the afternoon. I arrived a little early, maybe half an hour before my allotted time, and they were flexible about letting me enter. It costs nothing, but it is not a guided tour. There is a lot to see, if memory serves, it took me about 2 hours. I took a lot of photos, and I'm going to break them up into two posts.
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| At the entrance an employee checks to see if you have permission to go in. |
Once inside, you check in and another employee sitting at a desk gives you a little brochure with a map and straps a paper bracelet onto your wrist.
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| The first thing you see when you enter is a concrete/faux stone cliff dripping with water and planted up with moss and small plants tucked here and there. |
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| This strange plant was intriguing |
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| Looking up through the fronds of a tree fern to the top of the building and a peak at the vertical garden |
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| Immediately to the right of the waterfall are stairs leading up into the belly of the Spheres. |
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| From the top of the stairs looking back down |
There are stairs to each level for those who can handle them, but there are also elevators.
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| Here you can see three of the four levels |
Labeled "Forest" on the little map, it's more like a jungle or rainforest, full of exotic plants, densely growing in a raised bed, surrounded and crisscrossed by paths. There's a stream flowing slowly through the center of it, which streams over the edge of the cliff toward the entrance. The large tree in the center is a 49-year old Ficus rubiginosa tree (nicknamed Rubi) that came from California on the back of a semi and was hoisted into the Spheres via crane through a hole in the roof. You can read about that
here and watch a video too.
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| Some plants, not all, are identified with these wooden labels |
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| I saw a plant similar to this one labeled as Selaginella erythropus |
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| Eucharis grandiflora (Amazon lily) |
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| Many of the plants hang over the edges of the concrete wall |
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| If you're a Bromeliad lover there are plenty of huge, perfectly maintained specimens to admire |
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| A look up into the canopy overhead reveals the Bird Nest, a small meeting space that can only be reached from a catwalk |
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| A path that leads into the center of the forest area |
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| Many of the prayer plants had enormous leaves and luscious undersides |
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| Misters hidden high up as well as at ground level occasionally spurted mist into the air, but it wasn't unpleasantly humid |
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| Begonia soli-mutata |
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| Another huge Begonia |
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| I have no clue what this bare orange stick plant was, but it was interesting |
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| Enticing textures in the fabric-like folds of leaves |
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| Anguloa ruckeri (tulip orchid) |
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| The Bromeliad is Vriesea imperialis |
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| I got a kick out of watching this slug |
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| Theophrasta americana |
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| Macleania coccoloboides (epiphytic blueberry) |
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| Another fascinatingly strange twisted bare branch |
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| Another view up at the Bird Nest |
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| Philodendron gloriosum |
It's very easy to succumb to a kind of tunnel vision and begin to feel as if you are lost in a jungle somewhere, as you focus on the exotic plants. But then you look up and realize you are indeed inside an enormous, oppressively large structure made of steel, concrete and glass, much of it just over your head.
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| Theobroma cacao (Cacao tree) |
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| Hey, a plant I recognize without having to read the label -- Begonia luxurians |
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| Those mossy boulders are armchair-size, which gives you some idea how big the prayer plant leaves are |
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| Blechnum brasiliense (dwarf tree fern) |
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| And we are back at the beginning |
That was all just on one level! There are three more, as well as the vertical garden, which you can see from vantage points on all four levels.
Here's a sneak peak at the vertical garden, which will feature in next week's post, along with more Begonias and a variety of pitcher plants.
