The day started out drizzly and gray, and the the sun barely poked out at all. But while we got damp (at least in the morning) our spirits remained undampened. We started out our day at Coco’s in Pasadena, and the group grew in size as we met at the front gates of the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens.

When we planned this outing, we didn’t know we’d be meeting up with a botanic celebrity — “Son of Stinky” — a seed from the legendary “corpse flower” that made worldwide headlines in 1999, and now putting on quite a show of its very own. Stinky wasn’t actually stinky yet (the malodorous nature of the flower isn’t present until it blooms), but even so, it was pretty impressive. Any plant that grows five or six inches a day is impressive.

As always, it was a pleasure to meet up with old and new friends, and to have our very oldest and very youngest members along for the ride...

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