Norfolk Botanic Gardens - Late Summer

I renewed my membership in the Norfolk Botanic Garden back in April, but have only taken advantage of it once since then. So I had an afternoon free and drove over. The gardens looked great, despite the lack of rain here. Fay turned out to be a big tease. We had several days of overcast skies that would occasionally part with a few showers. We kept wondering when the real rain would start, but it never did.

There is a canal that runs through the garden and connects to Lake Whitehurst where some of the city's municipal water is stored. I remember coming here as a child with my grandparents before I lived here. We were on a bus tour and my two favorite parts were the canal boat ride through the gardens, and when the bus driver took us through a bad part of town retelling stories of being shot at. Currently the canals walls are being rebuilt so there were no rides yesterday.
The view from NATO tower.

This built in planter was by the cafe, and I although don't usually like this color combo, I thought this was very nice.

The signage is very good at the gardens, but I could not find one on this plant. The leaves were about 8-10" across and the flower is the 3-4" white spike in the middle. It was very tropical looking and had jointed canes like bamboo. At places it was over 6' tall and it looked herbaceous. Does anyone know what this is?
I had never seen this Paper Mulberry (Broussonettia papyifera 'Golden Shadow').

Also new to me was Hibiscuss sabdariffa. The flowers were not nearly as showy as the buds and stems.
A lot of the grasses were at their peak as was reliable Joe Pye.
Magnolia x 'Pink Goblet'
Black Pearl Ornamental Pepper (Capsicum annuum 'Black Pearl') was developed at the National Arboretum is was an All-America Selection winner.
This summer the gardens are exhibiting "Mutambo", sculptures from Zimbabwe. They were placed all throughout the garden and seemed to fit in perfectly with their surroundings.

Finally, NBG have placed a Wollemi Pine (Wollemia nobilis) in its own cage. I guess they fear its theft or they think it would be a good gimmick. They are very scarce in the wild, but there is a huge propagation effort going on so they should be in a garden center near you, or will be available through mail order. I don't know what I think about this effort, there is something fishy about it. I am all about saving species, but does it need such a commercial marketing effort.