Thursday Tours: Cameras, Deck shoes and Binoculars

The busses will depart from the Leonard Iris Farm and travel a short distance to Vermilionville. Vermilionville is nestled on the banks of the Vermilion Bayou and it is a recreated historical site showing the life in the Acadiana area between 1765 and 1890. There will be a blacksmith, spinner and fiddle player along with other craftspeople eager to share their traditions and way of life. At Vermilionville we will board a boat and take a forty-five minute boat ride up the Vermilion Bayou to points unknown. Several years ago there were numerous clumps of Abbeville Reds growing along the banks and if they are still there, it would be a special sighting. After the boat ride, lunch will be served at Vermilionville.

After lunch the busses will take us to Jean Lafitte Center for a short visual program on the migration of the Acadians from Nova Scotia to South Louisiana and thereafter we are off to Lake Martin bird rookery. The rookery at the lake rivals any on this continent and it is located among a lake full of cypress and tupelo stands. It is a fifteen to twenty minute drive from Jean Lafitte Center, and once we turn off the road, we will see Little Blue Herons, Great, Snow and Cattle Egrets, White Ibis, Roseate Spoonbills and Night-Herons. There is a good chance for a look at pileated, hairy, downy and red bellied Woodpeckers and Parula, Prothonotary and yellow-throated Warblers. There is also a good chance of seeing an alligator over twelve feet long.

The cost for the day trip is $38.00 per person and this includes all admissions, boat tour, lunch at Vermilionville, and the bus expenses. It should be a fun and entertaining day.

Friday Gardens on Tour

Located not far from the Hotel Acadiana on a bluff above the Vermilion River sits this beautiful landscaped garden. Seen for the first time in 2007 and on tour again in 2008 to see the same guest plants for their second bloom season.

Louisiana Iris Gardens at Baton Rouge Botanical Gardens, Baton Rouge, LA

The project of the late Joe Mertzweiller is still very much alive and growing at the Baton Rouge Recreation and Parks Commission (BREC) Independence Park Botanic Garden display of Louisiana Irises. Art Landry and a very active team of volunteers help maintain the gardens. It was a vision of Mr. Mertzweiller to have a collection of Louisiana Irises for the citizens of Baton Rouge along with the visitors to the city. The dream has come true and is being viewed by many visitors each year to the gardens.

The LSU Rural Life Museum and Windrush Gardens, Baton Rouge, LA

About one hundred and fifty years ago there was a parcel of land in East Baton Rouge Parish known as Windrush Plantation. The land was presented as a wedding gift to John Charles Burden and Emma Gertrude Barbee by her uncle William S. Pike Sr. The old Ward’s Creek which meanders through the property reminded Mr. Burton of the scenic Windrush River in the Cotswolds near London, England where the Burden family had come from, whence Windrush Plantation was named. The land was used as an agricultural and cattle farm and also growing cotton and corn on the property.

Today the property is owned by Louisiana State University, given to them starting in the 1960’s by the Burden family and is known as The LSU Rural Life Museum. The Rural Life Museum is located on the 450 acre Burden Research Plantation, provides insight into the largely forgotten lifestyles and cultures of the 18th and 19th century Louisianans. The Rural Life Museum is a working farm with about 25 historic buildings on the property. The LSU AgCenter’s Burden Center has the responsibility of maintaining the property. Adjacent to the Rural Life Museum are the Windrush Gardens and Burden Home occupying approximately 25 acres on the property.

Hospitality Room

Symposium

Business Meeting

Silent Auction

Iris Auction

Judges Training School