A quick stop at Manito Park, in December

How many places feel like home to you? Twenty years after I moved from my house near Manito Park in Spokane this area still feels like home to me. I try to work in a visit whenever I'm up in Spokane visiting my family, which I was earlier this month, helping my mom celebrate her 83rd birthday. 

It was chilly, and we soon discovered a little icy too. 

Thankfully even though we slipped, we remained upright.

Gaiser Conservatory

Duncan Garden, in the process of being decorated for the holidays.

In past years the conservatory plants have been lit with thousands of holiday lights and you could tour after dusk, but that wasn't happening this year. 

Anthurium crystallinum at the base of a large cycad.

Nephrolepis exaltata 'Variegata'

The first of several Phlebodium aureum I would lust after.

It's impressive rhizomes.

I remember this tillandsia sculpture from past visits.

Bananas and leaves and colorful bracts.

I was aiming the camera at the impressive staghorn...

But then noticed the orchid blooms, this plant of many names goes by Angraecum sesquipedale, Darwin's orchid, Christmas orchid, and Star of Bethlehem orchid. I think there's an epiphyllum bloom in the mix too.

Another look at the staghorn...

A peek into the "do not enter" wing reveals an accident waiting to be propagated.

Into the dry wing, which of course is not immune to the need for Christmas color (I wish I knew what Andrew was bent over trying to see).

Euphorbia platyclada

After returning home from our visit I received the Friends of Manito Newsletter which included this wonderful story about the "Christmas cactus".... "The Christmas cactus at Manito Park’s Gaiser Conservatory will once again be in full bloom this holiday season, continuing a tradition that spans over 120 years. Originally propagated in Iowa in 1906, the cactus was a gift for Ellen, a young Norwegian woman who had immigrated to America through Ellis Island in 1903 with her husband, Andrew, and their young children."

"Delores, Ellen’s only living granddaughter, now 96 years old, fondly recalls the cactus as a constant presence in her grandparents’ home during Christmas. “It was always part of the tradition,” she says, noting how it brings back cherished memories of her early years. After Ellen’s passing, the cactus was lovingly handed down through generations—from daughter to granddaughter to great-granddaughter—until it was eventually donated to Gaiser Conservatory. Today, it blooms not just for one family but for the entire community, carrying with it over a century of holiday cheer and timeless memories."

Epiphyllum guatemalense.

Cleistocactus winteri (Golden Rat Tail Cactus), I believe.

Variegated Agave victoriae-reginae.

Heading out now, I spotted another Phlebodium aureum.

And another...

Who says you can't go home again?

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