With spring just around the corner (at least officially -- today's cold weather notwithstanding), I figured it was time to put together a list of our favorite places around town to see beautiful blossomy things. There are so many well-curated and cared for public gardens in Hampton Roads. If you are looking forward to spring as much as we are, definitely add these to your list.

Below are the local gardens we've visited and loved (we know there are many still missing and can't wait to visit them, too).


Hermitage Museum (Norfolk): This gardens surrounding this gorgeous Arts-and-Crafts style house feature a rose garden, a wetlands garden leading down to the Lafayette River, a secluded grotto with fountains and statuary, and vintage millstones scattered throughout the gravelled yard.

Norfolk Botanical Garden (Norfolk): With 155 acres and 12 miles of paved trails, NBG is noted for its amazing azaleas and for its resident bald eagles. Take a tram tour or a boat ride, or stop by the Children's Garden.

Red Wing Park: Home to the Miyazaki Japanese Garden, planted in honor of Virginia Beach's sister city in Japan. Probably the best place to see cherry blossoms, come April or so.

Pagoda and Oriental Garden (Norfolk): More than 130 plants of Asian origin fill this picturesque space by the Elizabeth River.

Crezia Covington Lotus Garden (Virginia Beach): Blink and you'll miss this patch of lovely lotus flowers out near Back Bay.

Weyanoke Bird and Wildflower Sanctuary (Norfolk): A wild, woody spot beloved by local birdwatchers.

Fred Heutte Center (Norfolk): Features some lovely statuary, perennials, and a beautiful camellia bower (my favorite flowers, so this is a special favorite of mine).

Hampton Roads Agricultural Research and Extension Center (Virginia Beach): One of the most inspiring places in the area for plant lovers, AREC has a ton of interesting and useful demonstration gardens (and offers advice and help for planning your own.)

New Earth Farm (Virginia Beach): One of our favorite places to buy farm-grown fruits and veggies (and to buy seedlings for our own backyard space). Great food, great people.

Virginia Zoo (Norfolk): Several beautifully staged gardens (a rain garden and butterfly garden among them) are scattered throughout the Virginia Zoo. Be sure to look out for them on your next visit or attend Garden Tales when warmer weather comes and learn about the plants the zoo's animals depend on.

Elizabethan Gardens (Manteo, NC): Planted to honor the first English settlers in America, these gardens take inspiration from Elizabethan England and from the native flora of the New World.

Bacon's Castle (Surry, VA): A sweet colonial garden is maintained at this historic plantation house.

Colonial Williamsburg: Peeking into the kitchen gardens while walking DoG Street is always a treat (speaking of treats, here are two great places to eat when you're in CW).

Yorktown Victory Center: The colonial village exhibit has an interactive vegetable and herb garden where children can help water, tend, and harvest plants that would be grown in a traditional colonial garden.


If you'd rather do some gardening at home, here are some of our DIY gardening posts to get you started:

• Start your own compost pile
• Make a terrarium
• Grow plants for bees and butterflies as part of the Pollinator Protection Project
• Plant some wheatgrass -- easy for beginners and lovely living decor for Easter and spring holidays

This post can be found in the sidebar of the blog until summer. Happy spring! And now: your favorite HRVA gardens in the comments -- go!

There's a little place, tucked inside a nondescript shopping center off of Tidewater Drive in Norfolk, where you can get some of the best pastries in the area. It's called Naa's Bakery, and Anouk and I met Miss Molly and Little A. there last week to get ourselves sugared up before a park playdate.

Naa's has been around for the better part of a century, and as soon as you walk in you realize why it's earned its place as a Norfolk landmark, alongside places like Doumars and Charlie's Cafe. There's a sweetly (no pun intended) old fashioned charm that you just can't find anyplace else that makes you think it probably hasn't changed very much over the years. The long bakery case houses dozens of delicacies, from thick slices of homemade cake to feathery fluffed doughnuts to whimsically iced cupcakes and cookies. We had a hard time deciding what to order because everything looked so good (and a hard time meeting the $5 credit card minimum despite the half-dozen or so goodies we ordered -- seriously, the prices are so reasonable). As we sat at our table in the front of the bakery and sampled bites of each others' desserts, we chatted with the friendly staff behind the counter and it was a little bit like stepping back to a simpler time and place. The ladies behind the counter made us promise to come back -- they didn't have to twist our arms.

Have you been to Naa's? What were your favorites? In case you were wondering, our top picks were the plain glazed doughnuts and the thickly iced black-and-white cookies. Although everything we sampled was delicious. So much yum in one small place!

The reptile house is easy to miss at the Virginia Zoo. It's tucked away in the barnyard, which is currently closed for renovations, so it's not very a high-traffic area. However, Zoo Tales is often held during the winter in the barnyard classroom, and Anouk and I rediscovered the reptile house after storytime a few weeks ago. It has quickly become one of our favorite places to spend a rainy/chilly morning at the zoo.

The exhibit is pretty low-key, definitely not as flashy as the new tiger or orangutan habitat. It hasn't been renovated in a long time -- not since I was a kid, because I remember visiting it and things looked exactly the same, then. But it would be a shame to judge the reptile house on its outward appearance -- because the array of reptiles (and amphibians!) at the Virginia Zoo is pretty amazing. They have a wide collection of snakes and frogs, turtles and lizards (including a couple of fearsome iguanas), a few of which we've been lucky enough to be able to see up close (and pet!) at recent Zoo Tales. A. has been all about frogs ("woggies") lately, thanks to a little rubber frog she got at the pediatrician's office, and enjoys being held up for some face time with the frogs more than almost anything else the zoo has to offer.

The reptile house is attached to the nocturnal animal exhibit, and so when we tire of the creepy crawlies, we mosey on over to visit the the shrews, porcupines, and owls, and the animals in the small mammal house, including a teeny tiny red deer and the spider monkeys. The monkeys might just be our favorite animals at the zoo -- they are constantly in motion, tumbling and rolling, swinging from branches, and tossing each other food. It's worth a zoo trip just to see them -- Anne and I could watch the spider monkeys for hours. They're better than any movie, and far less predictable.

Don't forget about the reptiles and the small mammals on your next zoo visit! They just might surprise you, and turn out to be your favorites, too.