Earlier this month, over the Khmer New Year holiday, we had regional meetings on the island of Jeju in South Korea. We decided to stay a few days after to have a short family vacation. I’ll write more about our explorations later but I’ll start with another entry in my flower series.

We enjoyed visiting Longwood Gardens while we lived in Pennsylvania and so we made it a point to visit the Yeomiji Botanical Garden on Jeju. Immediately beside the botanical garden was a set of three waterfalls that we also wanted to see.

I’ll start with the flowers outside at the Yeomiji Botanical Garden. This area had four cultural gardens (Korean, Japanese, French, Italian) and several themed gardens (endangered species and native plants, Jeju native plants, hosta garden, Rhododendron garden, herb garden, bog garden, lawn garden, cycas, perennial border).

I had to include another honorable mention… There were these beautiful berry trees all over Jeju that I at first thought were flowers from a distance.

The massive sunflower shaped greenhouse at the center of the botanical garden was very impressive and included six themed gardens (aquatic, flower, mystery, cactus, jungle, and tropical).

The view from the greenhouse’s central tower was breathtaking. It was especially rewarding to look down at the themed gardens that we’d walked through earlier and enjoy them from a different perspective – and to look forward at the bridge we’d be crossing soon on our way to see the nearby waterfalls.

Jeju island is famous for it’s the blossoms of it’s Peach and Plum trees but, sad to say, we failed to get any photos of these. It was pretty amazing to see the fallen pink petals floating in waves across the street but it was raining the days when we were in that area and we neglected to get a photo.

Another honorable mention were the tangerines… They were growing all over the island.

One of our core goals is that we always want to be working ourselves out of a job. We want the communities we serve to be strong and independent. Sometimes Crystal and I imagine what our lives would be like if conflict, poverty, and injustice were gone. What would we do in the peaceable kingdom? Personally I think gardening like they do in Jeju would be a great way to live.