Earlier this year we seized the opportunity to visit plantswoman May Vidacovich’s fascinating and beautifully cared for private garden in Louisiana. The garden is a heady mix of plants I know well with others I’d never seen before, or only ever at flower shows.
Normally I’d avoid being out in hot sun and I was tempted to describe it as a fleeting visit. In truth I lingered for longer than it felt at the time and pretty much had to be dragged away in a sorry state of heat exposure and reluctance to leave this piece of paradise.
I’m sharing these pictures with hardly any commentary other than to note that they only skim the surface of what was flourishing there.
May made me smile by pointing out the amorphophallus flowers always seemed to face away, no matter where they were planted (and my sweetheart added that they blush at the same time).
Follow May Vidacovich on Instagram if you’d like to watch as this garden blooms all year round.
Susan Rushton 
I think that I would risk heat exhaustion to visit this garden. Beautiful flower photos.
I know you would. Well worth it too!
Wow, what an awesome garden and all these special flowers ! I could spend there a whole day. Thanks for sharing.
It must be lovely to wake up there and go out to see what flowers have opened with the dawn.
It’s a beautiful garden, for sure. The red Asiatic Lilies are one of my favorites, but that Purple Wreath is appealing, too. I’ll confess that I’ve never thought of Lafayette as a garden spot, but that’s only because most of my visits there have involved the Blue Moon or Vermillionville Sunday afternoon dances.
We tried dancing in (roughly) that part of the world during an earlier visit but the band packed up almost as soon as we got there. I am not very good at organised dancing, so perhaps that was as well.
This made my day!
I’m glad!
What a fabulous garden, I would love to be able to visit. I like the angel with her face turned up to the sun but my favourites are the red Asiatic lilies, the colour is gorgeous 🙂
I added a link to May’s Instagram account, so you could always visit virtually. Not quite the same but the next best thing.
This is an astonishingly exotic and beautiful garden.
I had many more pictures than I could reasonably share. One plant that mesmerised me was ‘just’ a leafy one. The unfurling leaves were the shape of Cornettos without the ice cream, but more fluid. I am not sure the ice cream image will be helping here!
Um, it’s a …. different … analogy.
Perhaps memories of the hot day made me think of ice cream.
I like the use of brick patio with different heights of containers. The gloriosa lilies and Asiatic lilies are outstanding. It would be worth the heat to see it .. as long as there was some iced tea at the end to refresh.
A cold glass of wine, I imagine. After a shower!
Another wonderful garden and photos Susan 🙂
Thanks, Brian. I have a queue of gardens waiting for me to try to do them some justice, but this demanded to be first.
Can’t wait to see more Susan
A beautiful garden and I’m sure worth the heat to see it. Even though I garden in a nearby zone, there were many plants I have not seen before.
I had never seen the Purple wreath and I found it very surprising, with two distinctly different styles of flowers, or so it appeared.
And these only skim the surface??? I cannot imagine! It is very dangerous when heat like that and a garden like that intersect. How can you not linger too long? I hope you recovered quickly, and I thank you for taking the pictures for us!
Honestly, they do. I added a link so you could see more, but it may have been after you visited.
Do you mean the Instagram link?
Yes, that’s the one.
Thanks. I wanted to be sure I hadn’t missed a different one.
Holy cats, what a garden! No wonder the heat couldn’t drive you away. My favorite flowers are the gloriosa lilies. They look like little flames on a stem.
Flames on a stem is the perfect description.
Glorious photographs
It was a pleasure to have the chance to take them.