I am just back from Florida and wanted to share with you all some of the sights of sunny Florida this time of the year. While we here in Tennessee are in the 20s-40s mid Florida enjoyed temperatures in the 70s and 80s. Wow! It was rather warm. I loved the tropical air and the gardens too. I am not so sure I'd love them so much in the summer but for March it wasn't so bad.
A sight we can see here in Tennessee this time of the year is a camellia. The one shown above was growing amongst many more in a public garden held privately, called Bok Tower Gardens. It's cultivar was listed as 'Akashigata'.
To my understanding, Bok Tower gardens and the adjoining Mediterranean styled mansion (to be posted later) are gardens the public can visit but they are held in a private foundation's hands. That is what I mean by public garden held privately. Therefore, this attraction must be self sufficient because I don't believe it gets any endowments from the government. For further information check the website.
On our way to the mansion, named Pinewood, we passed a Gopher Tortoise crossing sign. And lo and behold there was the tortoise! Our cart driver knew right where he was sunning and stopped so I could snap a photo. According to this website gopher tortoises are one of the oldest living species and it originated in the United States 60 million years ago. It is on Florida's endangered list so of course, in this garden, you must protect it, hence the sign to watch for these tortoises crossing. Tortoises are land dwellers; a big difference from turtles.
You can't visit Florida without seeing large elephant ears.
Or tangerine trees. These trees are part of the garden belonging to the Pinewood Mansion. More on that next week. I was intrigued by their topiary form. Most of the tangerines had been picked a few weeks ago when these trees were trimmed.
A perfect view of the gardens, complete with Spanish moss draped off from the tree.
Finally, a highlight of our visit was the HUGE koi pond. Our cart driver also told us there was a tilapia pond just below this one but we did not get to see it. These koi were gigantic. There was a nearby feeder dispenser that we were able to buy some food to feed the koi. Mr. Fix-it enjoyed hand feeding this big female.
More on Bok Tower Gardens next week. As always, I like to highlight military friendly places to visit. While Bok Towers is not a major attraction as compared to Disney it is still a wonderful place to visit and as a bonus, offers a 50% discount for military! You can't beat that. The atmosphere is laid back, unhurried, and delightful. There was a wonderful restaurant that served organic food and was reasonably priced. The reasonably priced part is oftentimes hard to find in attractions like this. If you ever get the chance to visit the middle of Florida look up Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales....
in the garden....
Cool! I seem to remember Lake Wales being a venue for either a massage convention or one for Young Living. Anyway, it's a place on my list of ones to visit in Florida. Thanks for the tip on the gardens. I will definitely make a point of stopping there for a visit.
ReplyDeleteWe made a trip up to Illinois recently and definitely appreciated the warmer weather at home in Florida. But you're right, the summers are usually not much fun. I guess summertime has become my winter now (stay inside as much as possible).
I could use a trip to Florida and some warm weather right now. Bok Gardens looks like a great place to visit.
ReplyDeleteBeen here nearly 40 yrs & never heard of this. Will have to check it out. Elephant Ears are everywhere. They are pretty & easy to grow. Love the Koi.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I care for those tangerine trees, but I do like the natural look of the garden in the photo right after it. You are so lucky that Mr. Fix-it doesn't mind touring gardens on your trips! My husband humors me for awhile, but if has a choice, he'll do about anything else rather than hear me ooh and aah over plants:)
ReplyDeleteA new garden to explore...very nice!!
ReplyDeleteI know those Koi there are crazy big monsters!! watch out for your kids...cant wait to see you photos...and whats in bloom
ReplyDeleteKoi grow a certain amount every year - in fact, some koi growers can tell how old the fish are just by their size (or so I've read). Interesting how they trim those tangerine trees. It must have been nice to get away to somewhere warm and sunny for a while.
ReplyDeleteHi Tina....This looks like such a great place to visit. I really like seeing the Tortoise. I need one of those Elephant Ears to make my leaf casting when you have the class...LOL.
ReplyDeleteLove seeing the gopher tortoises. Those elephant ears are larger than elephants! Interesting shapes for the tangerine trees. So fun to see what grows in different places and how the gardens are layed out. I really enjoy your garden tours. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteHi Tina, i haven't been here for awhile. I can imagine how lovely those temperatures in Florida are, especially when ours are 33C and still going up till April. But yours at 4C will be too cold for us, who are not familiar with very cold temps and winter. I agree you had a wonderful time in your vacation.
ReplyDeleteHi Tina, We just found your blog and this post on Bok Tower. We spend January thru March in Central Florida and then the rest of the year back in Maryland, so we try to visit as many nature spots, gardens, botanicals, etc. as we can while we are down here in FL. We just visited Bok this year and were very impressed at how high the level of beauty and maintenance was for a place kept by private money. Last year we went to Corkscrew Sanctuary kept by the Audubon Society and were surprised at how "gently" seedy the bathrooms were, for example. Anyway, we are about 2 hours from anything where we are so we travel the great state of Florida taking overnighters when necessary (for example, to Key West), so if you are ever visiting again and want some feedback on places to photograph or visit that we might have already touristed, let me know. Best to you, I'll be subscribing now - Shenandoah
ReplyDeleteWell hello Shenandoah and I'm glad to meet you! Central Florida sure has lots to offer. How wonderful you winter down there. We found the weather quite delightful-especially since we now have snow on the ground in Tennessee! I may just take you up on your offer the next time we visit Florida. Sometimes those off the beaten paths are the best places to visit-sometimes I wish had a few more lifetimes to see them all!
DeleteLove, love those pictures, especially the turtle one. Turtles always look so regal and wise! :-) Many thanks.
ReplyDeleteGreetings from London.
My favorite would be the large elephant ears. It is so cool and it seems like it is growing very healthy.
ReplyDeleteHi Tina,
ReplyDeleteWhen I was growing up, we went to Bok Tower Gardens a few times. I think I still have an old postcard about the Singing Tower. Interesting to see what the place looks like now. Congratulations on your garden design award from PPA!
Thanks DJ! I am still very excited about the award. That singing tower was really romantic.
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