The Curmudgeonly Professor

A Last-Minute Visit to the Tulip Gardens at the Jordan River Temple Salt Lake City UT May 16 2013

I had only my heavy-duty telephoto lense when I went to the flower gardens at the Jordan River Temple in Salt Lake City last night.  But you get the general idea.  If you want to see what the Jordan River Temple looks like, go to search and look through my archives.  I was anxious to get to the Temple gardens because I was fearful that the tulips were about to be pulled in favor of summer annuals.  The Jordan River Temple flower gardens are likely the best of the temple flower gardens in the Salt Lake Valley other than Temple Square in downtown SL City and I was hoping I hadn't missed the last of the tulips.  

Fortunately, I was in luck.  Some of the tulips were past their prime, but the main tulip garden by the main east temple door was still intact.  Many people attending the temple stopped to admire the lovely muted pinks, yellows, reds, oranges, and whites of the tulip garden.  These people were all dressed up and I had on a Little America baseball cap, a green polo shirt, and was carrying a walking stick to prop me up while I photographed the garden.  No one seemed to mind, and many were interested in the fact that I was capturing the tulips at their last minutes of survival.

But, alas, as we drove through the parking lots on the west of the temple, the fate of the tulip gardens was all too imminent  Here were hundreds and hundreds of flats of annual flowers lined up along the side of the parking lot just waiting for the gardeners to pull the tulips and other spring flowers and send them to the compost bins.  But thanks to the miracle of digital photography, I was able to capture the muted beauty of the last of the tulips and preserve them to help me remember them long after they are gone.

Here is just a small sample of the annual plants and flowers awaiting the demise of the tulips.  Then, in a few more weeks, I will return and capture the beauty of the summer flowers as they provide feelings of peace and tranquility to all who see them.  And for those who cannot visit the temple grounds, I will show many of them to you here.

Small Circles of Pink Flowers Among the Leaves at Jordan River Temple Gardens SLCity UT

Blue Blossoms, Asters Maybe from Jordan River Temple Flower Gardens SLCity UT

White and Purple Tinged Dahlia from Jordan River LDS Temple Flower Garden Sept 2012

Red Dahlia from the Jordan River LDS Temple Flower Gardens Sept 2012

White Dahlia Tinged in Purple from Jordan River LDS Temple Flower Gardens SLCity UT

Flower Garden at Jordan River LDS Temple SLCity UT

The Beautiful Heart of a Purple and White Dahlia from the Jordan River LDS Temple Gardens SLCity UT

Little White Roses from Jordan River LDS Temple Gardens SLCity UT

Dahlias from Jordan River LDS Temple Gardens SLCity UT

Pink Rose from Jordan River LDS Temple Flower Gardens SLCity UT

Tiny White Roses from the Gardens at Jordan River LDS Temple SLCity UT

Fringed Purple and White Dahlias from the Gardens at Jordan River LDS Temple SLCity UT

Red and White Dahlias from the Dahlia Garden at the Jordan River LDS Temple SLCity UT

Closeup of Pink Dahlia from the Flower Gardens at Jordan River LDS Temple SLCity Ut