Cranbrook Gardens

Visit the Breathtaking Cranbrook House & Gardens

Oakland County, MI Government 1 Comment

From exquisite gardens to a reflecting pool, and a stunning Japanese Garden, you’ll be enthralled with all that Cranbrook House and Gardens’ 40 acres of formal, woodland, and naturalistic gardens have to offer. The manicured gardens provide the perfect backdrop to the Cranbrook House, a National Historic Landmark and the oldest manor home in Metro-Detroit.

Admission for self-guided tours of the gardens is free from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. daily through October. Paid admission is required for tours of Cranbrook House and special events.

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Pokeweed: Facts, Folklore and Warnings

Oakland County, MI Government 16 Comments

WILDER SIDE OF OAKLAND COUNTY

img_4958Pokeweed (Phytolacca Americana) is drawing attention in these closing days of summer. This colorful native plant with a controversial cultural and folk history has even poked up without invitation at the edge of the manicured Cranbrook Gardens.

Not many plants have a song, but this one does. In 1969 Tony Joe White’s “Polk Salad Annie” became an instant country hit with memorable melancholy lyrics describing the lifestyle and family misfortunes of Annie, a Louisiana woman who gathered the leaves of pokeweed to feed her family.“She’d go out in the evenings to pick a mess of it… Carry it home and cook it for supper, ’cause that’s about all they had to eat.”  As for her biggest misfortunes; a gator ate her granny. Continue reading →