Garden tour

Hello Blog Pals,

Happy Canada Day Sandy!  Have a Tim's Bits for me.

The day before Canada Day I decided to take Sequoia out for a small hike.  We hiked up to this nice house in town.  Apparently, the previous owner made a lot of money in newspapers back in the day when people read newspapers.  The mansion is a museum now but it was occupied until about 1958 when it was vacant for about 8 years until the city stepped in and bought it for about $220K.  

I wonder if there are any cookies in the kitchen?

Since I am hiking with Sequoia we can't go inside the mansion (ugh, it's not dog friendly) but the grounds are.  As you can see Sequoia is trying to be on his best behavior - perhaps he thinks he might get a treat from the gardening staff if he behaves well in front of them.

The flowers planted onsite are blooming - they look great. 

Jerry what kind of plants are these?

I am not sure what kind of plants these are but they look really good right now. 

My favorite plant is this spikey one - I think I need to plant these in my garden.  If only I knew what they are.  Jerry?  Any help?

Alas our garden adventure was over.  Sequoia was excited because that meant we were able to continue our hike which interested him more than the flowers - sigh.