Living Our Dream

Naples Botanical Garden

Wauchula, FL - Events of Tuesday, May 21, 2019

With the completion of Paul's furniture projects, we finally decided to do some sightseeing. We took a day trip to Naples, Florida, last Tuesday (May 21) to visit the Naples Botanical Garden. We love gardens, and with summer approaching and the weather warming up, we thought it would be a good idea to see the garden in Naples before it got any hotter.

Naples is about a two-hour drive from Wauchula. We arrived around 11 a.m. and made our way into the garden. Admission is a little spendy at $20 per person, but the online reviews told us this was a great garden and that the higher than usual price would probably be worth it. It turned out we weren't disappointed.

The organization that built the Naples Botanical Garden was established in 1993 by a group of local garden enthusiasts. The late Harvey Kapnik, Jr. donated $5 million in 2000 to purchase a tract of land 3 miles from downtown Naples. After a master plan was developed, construction on the first phase of the garden began in 2008. Phase 1 opened in 2009, and the final phase of the master plan was completed just a few years ago in 2014.

At 170 acres, the garden is big. As with most gardens, there are winding, intersecting paths. Although we had maps, we had a little trouble getting oriented at first. However, we finally saw the large map posted right near the garden entrance that had a "you are here" label on it, so we were good to go.

The first area we visited was the Children's Garden. The central part of the Children's Garden has ground level fountains kids can walk through.

Children's Garden with fountains

Whimsical characters in the Children's Garden

Thatched-roof playhouse in the Children's Garden

Sea turtle sculpture covered with shells and pebbles

In addition to the Children's Garden, there are about a dozen other areas including the Brazilian Garden, the Caribbean Garden, the River of Grass, the Uplands Preserve, the Florida Garden, the Succulent Garden, and the Idea Garden. Even though the garden areas had different designations, the areas seemed to blend together rather seamlessly as we meandered the paths. Below are just some of the beautiful views we enjoyed in the Naples Botanical Garden.

Pond and waterfall in the Brazilian Garden

View along a path in the Brazilian Garden

Water lily pond at the top of the waterfall in the Brazilian Garden

Garden shed

Paul checking out the plants in a water garden

Mosaic border along one of the paths

Selfie in the Caribbean Garden

Succulent Garden

Entrance to the path heading around one of the lakes

Florida Garden

Margery in one of the thatched huts in the Florida Garden

Pond and waterfall in the Florida Garden

View of the pond in the Florida Garden from the opposite side

Idea Garden

Succulent Garden

Sculpture that looks like twisted tree roots

View across the lawn toward the Water Garden

Water feature next to the entrance/exit

The Naples Botanical Garden is probably the best tropical garden we have seen. There was an abundance of different kinds of palm trees and exotic plants, many of which had spectacular blooms. Below are just a few of the exotic blooms we saw.

A few of the many exotic blooms at Naples Botanical Garden

As we said, the garden is big. We spent almost 2½ hours and only toured the main garden areas. There are trails that go all the way around two big lakes and a boardwalk through the Uplands Preserve that we skipped because it was getting late and the sun was getting very hot. We were also getting pretty tired and hungry.

We had scoped out several restaurants ahead of time, and we ultimately decided on Buzz's Lighthouse. Buzz's is a waterfront inn and restaurant in North Naples. It is located on a small, man-made harbor across from Vanderbilt Beach. The place had an old Florida vibe reminiscent of the 1960s. It was very nostalgic for Paul, who vacationed in Florida when he was a kid in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Buzz's Lighthouse

Lunches range in price from about $10 to $18 and include things like burgers, a Philly cheese steak, and several kinds of fish sandwiches including a grouper reuben. Dinners are about $16 to $50. We both had a Buzz's Famous Fish Sandwich ($12.95), which includes lettuce, tomato, onion, a dill pickle spear, and chips (Lays chips in a snack-sized bag). We got one order of fries ($2) to share.

Paul with his fish sandwich

The fish sandwiches and the fries were good, but not great. The prices were a little high considering the fish was unnamed "white fish" and you get bagged potato chips, not house-made chips; but the atmosphere is great, so we would probably go back if we're in the area again.

With our bellies full, we made the two-hour trek back home. After walk around the Co-op, we settled in for an evening of TV.

Leu Gardens

Wauchula, FL - Events of Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Margery found Leu Gardens located in Orlando last year when doing research for sightseeing possibilities. With our love of botanical gardens, we have been wanting to go ever since. We finally set aside time from all our projects and headed to Leu Gardens last Wednesday.

The property on which the gardens are situated was first purchased by David and Angeline Mizell in 1858. The Mizells used the land to grow cotton, corn, and sugar cane. After the Mizells, the property was owned by two other families before it was purchased in 1936 by Harry and Mary Jane Leu.

Mr. Leu owned an industrial supply company that was successful enough to enable them to travel the world. On their travels, they collected plants and seeds for their extensive garden. The Leus deeded their home and 50-acre estate to the City of Orlando in 1961.

Admission to the gardens is $10, which normally also includes a tour of the house. Unfortunately, the house is currently closed as a result of damage from Hurricane Irma last September. In the next photo, you can one of several blue tarps covering much of the roof of the house.

Leu House

Adjacent to the visitor center is 50-acre Lake Rowena. There is an overlook near the visitor center where we saw a snowy egret and a blue heron.

Blue heron

The gardens include a variety of tropical and temperate plants. Many of the paths are shaded by palm trees and are lined with various types of shrubs and perennials. Our favorite areas were the Color Garden and the nearby Butterfly Garden because of the many colorful annuals planted there.

Display of container plants along a path in the Color Garden

Mix of annuals and ornamental grasses in the Color Garden

Hanging planters gracing an archway into the Butterfly Garden

Annuals lining the walkway in the Butterfly Garden

Brightly colored border

Margery enjoying the view

Paul in the Butterfly Garden

Another beautiful border

More annuals along another section of walkway

 The vegetable garden has outbuildings and a picket fence that are reminiscent of Colonial Williamsburg.

View of part of the vegetable garden

Selfie at Leu Gardens

Next to the Color Garden is the Rose Garden with its central fountain. The roses were in full bloom.

Rose Garden

Examples of a few of the many varieties of roses

Next to the Rose Garden is the Floral Clock.

Floral Clock

Orlando is near the heart of what used to be Florida's citrus country. Most citrus growers moved a little farther south (in and around where the SKP Co-op is located) due to past freezes that caused heavy damage to trees, but Leu Gardens has a couple of bronze sculptures on display featuring citrus workers. 

Bronze sculptures of citrus workers

Perennials are scattered throughout the garden. The composite photo below shows a few of the perennials that were in bloom.

Some of the perennials that were in bloom

On the way to the parking lot, we passed the Idea Garden. The Idea Garden has several distinct areas that illustrate a variety of plants and different horticultural techniques.

Idea Garden

Another view of the Idea Garden

Clermont is about 45 minutes from Orlando, and there is an OakWood Grill located in Clermont. Since we were both disappointed by the early closing of OakWood Grill when we tried to go there for Margery's birthday, we headed there after leaving Leu Gardens.

OakWood Grill

It was baby back ribs that we were after, and they were on special (Sunday through Wednesday) for $13.99. The price includes two sides. Margery had mac and cheese and slaw for her sides, and Paul had lima beans and slaw. The ribs were as good as we remembered them - fall-off-the-bone tender with just the right amount of sauce.

Thumbs up to the ribs at OakWood Grill

After lupper, we headed back to the Co-op for an evening of TV.

Palmer Orchids

Wauchula, FL - Events of Wednesday, April 25 to Monday, April 30, 2018

Paul is continuing to work on projects for our new park model. One project that he started quite some time ago was building a headboard for the bedroom. Because the headboard was purely decorative, it didn't have a high priority so Paul only worked on it here and there as time permitted. However, working on so many other projects and cleaning out the storage bay of the 5th wheel had left our shed in chaos so it was time complete the headboard and get it out of the shed.

Margery put a coat of primer on the headboard while Paul was working on other things, then Paul put on two finish coats of paint last Wednesday. He finally installed the headboard on Thursday.

New headboard

Between coats of paint on the headboard, Paul worked on cleaning out and organizing the shed.

Starting the task of cleaning out the shed

He started by taking most of the larger items outside to get them out of the way. 

Sorting some of the clutter

It took all day, but we can now see the floor again. Leftover wood is organized to make it easier to find, tools are put away, and things we don't use were either donated to next year's Co-op yard sale or thrown away.

Last Monday, we took a break from projects because we needed to make a trip to Sam's Club. We decided to go to the one in Bradenton so we could stop at Palmer Orchids in northeast Bradenton on the way. Palmer Orchids is an orchid nursery that grows and sells a wide variety of beautiful orchids.

Wide variety of orchids at Palmer Orchids

We have been wanting to go to Palmer Orchids ever since one of the other members of the Co-op showed us the orchid he bought there last winter. We don't know a lot about orchids, but they are supposed to be fairly easy to grow in spite of their exotic look.

Many varieties of orchids at Palmer Orchids

We had a lot of fun just looking around. It was like going to an orchid conservatory.

The next photo shows an orchid with dozens of tiny, yellow orchids on each stalk.

Dozens of tiny, yellow orchids

There was another variety with bright red and yellow flowers.

Red and yellow variety

We ended up buying a small orchid. It looks great on our end table.

Orchid on our end table

From Palmer, we went on to get what we needed at Sam's Club. Afterward, we stopped at Texas Roadhouse for lupper even though we had just been to the Texas Roadhouse in Lakeland for Margery's birthday a few days prior. The reason we went again so soon was we had gotten another coupon for a free appetizer, and we were disappointed we weren't able to get our favorite Snake Bite appetizer on our previous stop. Not only that, but neither of us got our usual dinner of 6-ounce sirloins on Margery's birthday so we were both hungry for steak. Everything was yummy!

With our bellies full, we headed back to the Co-op for an evening of TV. In the midst of all our projects, we finally had a sightseeing outing planned. Stay tuned.

McKee Botanical Garden

Wauchula, FL - Events of Tuesday, April 11, 2017

We took advantage of our extended time in Florida to do some sightseeing. The weather was beautiful last Tuesday so we took a day trip to Vero Beach over on the east coast. Our destination was McKee Botanical Garden which was about 2½-hour drive.

McKee Botanical Garden was opened in 1932 as McKee Jungle Gardens by Arthur McKee and Waldo Sexton, who were land developers. By the 1940s, over 100,000 tourists a year were visiting the garden with its extensive collection of water lilies, orchids and other tropical plants from around the world. In those days, no jungle garden would be complete without also having monkeys and alligators.

Paul doesn't remember visiting McKee Jungle Gardens when he vacationed in Florida as a kid with his parents. However, he definitely remembers seeing their advertising signs along the road. The garden is located on US 1, which was the main north-south route along the east coast of Florida back in the 1950s.

Like so many old Florida roadside attractions, McKee Jungle Gardens fell victim to the development of interstate highways and to the opening of Disney World in the 1970s. The gardens closed in 1976, and all but 18 acres of the original 80-acre plot was sold off for condominiums. The remaining 18 acres lay dormant until the Indian River Land Trust raised enough funds in 1994 to purchase the property. After additional fund raising and much restoration effort, McKee Botanical Garden was opened to the public in 2001.

We arrived at the garden a little before noon. Out in the parking lot there is a stump of a huge cypress tree that was retrieved from a swamp in the 1930s and hauled to McKee Jungle Gardens on a flatbed truck by Waldo Sexton. The tree from which the stump came was 2,000 years old and over 100 feet tall when it was cut by loggers back in the day.

Stump from a 2000-year old cypress tree

We headed to the entrance building where we paid our admission fee. Admission is $12 for adults and $11 for seniors over 65.

Entrance building on the right

We entered the garden through the archway that can be seen between the two buildings in the above photo. The dozen or so orchids that are on display under the archway pay homage to the very extensive orchid collection that was part of the original gardens.

Two of the dozen orchids on display near the entrance

The archway opens out onto an oval-shaped lawn. The lawn is surrounded by palm trees and exotic, tropical foliage.

Archway leading to oval-shaped lawn

Several paths radiate out from the oval. They all twist and wind their way through various areas of the garden. Fortunately, the maps that are handed out are nicely done and it's hard to get completely lost.

We started out on the first path to the right leading to the Royal Palm Grove. Royal palms are majestic trees that can reach heights of 80 feet. Their straight, smooth, gray trunks are topped by green palmshafts and luxuriously-full palm fronds. They are Paul's favorite palm tree; but unfortunately, they are too big and not quite cold-hardy enough to be able to plant on our site in Wauchula.

Royal Palm Grove

View of a royal a Royal Palm showing the green palmshaft below the fronds

In the area of the Royal Palm Court there is a stickwork sculpture by Patrick Doughtery. We have seen his work before at several other botanical gardens. The title of this work is "The Royals" in honor of the adjacent palms.

"The Royals" stickwork sculpture by Patrick Doughtery

The fun part of Doughtery's work is you can walk all around it and even into it.

Margery inside one of "The Royals"

A temporary exhibit at the McKee Botanical Garden when we were there was "Nature Connects," which is a series of sculptures made from over 300,000 Lego blocks. One was a life-sized rototiller located near the Royal Palm Grove.

Life-sized rototiller made from Legos

The Lego sculptures are scattered around the garden. Shown below are several of our favorites.

Lego bald eagle

Lego hummingbird

Lego butterfly

We continued our way around the garden enjoying the lush, tropical growth lining the paths and surrounding the many ponds.

Palm trees and tropical foliage

Vine-covered arch over one of the paths

One of many ponds

Another pond with a waterfall

Yet another pond with a glass sculpture

The Sleeping Tree is a Toog Tree that was blown over by Hurricane David in 1979. With some of its roots still intact, it continued to grow in its new prone position.

Sleeping Tree

The garden has hundreds of shade-loving bromiliads that add color to the garden. The one shown below not only has colorful foliage, but it is also just starting to bloom. You can see one small, pink, triangular flower in the center. That one flower will soon be joined by many more on a stalk that will eventually rise about a foot above the leaves.

Colorful bromiliad that is just starting to bloom

One unusual plant we saw was a red pineapple which is native to South America. Although its fruit is edible, it is less fleshy than commercially grown pineapples so the red pineapple is grown primarily as an ornamental. They are also sometimes used as barrier hedge because their spiny leaves discourage trespassers.

Red pineapple

We enjoyed our visit to the McKee Botanical Garden. We knew we would be hungry after our walk around the garden so we scouted out several places to eat beforehand. There were a couple places in Vero Beach that got good online reviews, and the there was also one called Squid Lips that was located about a half hour to the north of Vero Beach in Sebastian. Although Squid Lips was farther away, the name definitely caught our attention that's where we headed.

Squid Lips

We arrived after the lunch rush so they weren't very crowded. We were able to get a window table overlooking the marina beside the restaurant.

View from our table

Squid Lips has sandwiches that include chips and a soft drink for $8 to $14. You can substitute fries for the chips for $1. They have baskets of fried seafood for $9 to $14 that include fries and slaw. Dinner entrées are about $15 to $27 and include potato and a vegetable. You can add a side salad to your dinner for $3.

Margery had a fried clam strip basket ($10.99), and Paul had fried shrimp ($12.99). The clams were sweet and tender, the shrimp were fairly large and were lightly breaded, the slaw was excellent with a little celery seed added for extra flavor, and the seasoned fries were nice and crisp. Everything was delish, and the portions were fairly generous.

Paul with his shrimp basket

After our nice day of sightseeing and great meal, we headed back to the co-op for an evening of TV. See you next time.

Bok Tower Gardens

Wauchula, FL - Events of Monday, February 6, 2015

Bok Tower Gardens is a tower and garden located in nearby Lake Wales. It was built in the 1920s by Edward Bok, editor of the Ladies' Home Journal. Paul visited there when he was a kid on vacation in Florida with his parents in the 1950s. We also visited Bok Tower back in 2013.

We have been seeing azaleas blooming in people's yards here in central Florida as we travel about. Since the garden at Bok Tower has a good many azaleas, we were hoping a lot of them would also be in bloom when we made a repeat visit last Monday.

Admission to the garden is $12 for adults. Pinewood Estate is adjacent to Bok Tower, and combo tickets are available for $20. Pinewood is a 20-room, Mediterranean-Revival mansion built between 1930 and 1932 as a winter home by C. Austin Buck, who was vice-president of Bethlehem Steel. The foundation that operates Bok Tower Gardens purchased Pinewood in the 1960s. We visited Pinewood back in 2013, so we decided to skip it this time and just visit the garden to see what might be in bloom we didn't see last time. Click here to read about our 2013 visit to Pinewood Estate.

Edward Bok and his wife spent winters in the upscale community of Mountain Lake Estates near Lake Wales. Bok decided to purchase land adjacent to Mountain Lake Estates known as Iron Mountain where he enjoyed taking evening walks. He wanted to preserve Iron Mountain as a bird sanctuary.

Bok hired famous landscape architect Frederick Olmsted, Jr. in 1921 to design and build a 50-acre garden which would become his bird sanctuary on Iron Mountain. Bok also built a 205-foot tower on the highest point on the property. The tower was completed in 1929 only a year before Bok's death. He is buried in front of the door to the tower.

The tower is called the Singing Tower because of its 60-bell carillon. There are 30-minute daily carillon concerts at 1:00 and 3:00.

Outside the Visitor Center there are a number of attractive container plants. An interesting one was an ornamental pepper.

Ornamental pepper plant

Ornamental peppers

We started our tour in the Visitor Center where there are displays about Edward Bok's life and about the building of the gardens and tower. About 4 million pounds of Georgia marble were used in the construction of the tower. Another major component is coquina, which is a compressed limestone-seashell composite rock from Florida.

Margery checking out some of the info on building the tower

The tower itself is not open to the public, but there is a scale model in the Visitor Center that shows some of what is inside the tower. The top third of the tower is where the bells of the carillon are located. The roof over the bells is designed to deflect sound outward into the garden.

Scale model of the tower

From the Visitor Center, we headed out into the garden. The area surrounding the Visitor Center has a good many flowers in bloom.

Flowers near the Visitor Center

However, as we began walking up hill toward the tower, flowers became less frequent. Along the paths up the hill, the garden relies on leaf color and texture for interest.

Leaf color and texture add interest

Toward the top of the hill, the garden is more shady and somewhat jungle-like.

Shady path through the garden

The tower itself is in a clearing at the top of the hill.

Bok Tower as viewed from the south side

The moss-draped live oak trees that surround the tower are reflected in the colorful ceramic tiles on the grills that cover the openings at the top of the tower where the bells are located. Exotic birds fly among the branches of the trees, and there are monkeys at the bottom. Click on the photo below (or any photo) to enlarge it.

Ceramic tiles covering the grills at the top of the tower

There are great views from the top of the hill on the south side of the tower. You can see orange groves stretching off into the distance.

View of orange groves to the south

The door on the north side of the tower is made from teak and is covered with brass panels that depict Biblical scenes of creation. Bok's grave is in front of the door.

The grave of Edward Bok in front of the brass door of the tower

As we headed back down the other side of the hill, we finally passed a few azaleas in bloom, but it was far from the spectacular peak bloom we were hoping to see.

A few azaleas in bloom

For some reason, we just can't seem to get to any botanical garden at the right time to see azaleas in peak bloom. We have tried at Bok Tower and Rainbow Gardens in Florida, at Callaway Gardens in Georgia, and several times at Bellingrath Gardens in Alabama. The warmer weather in the south seems to spread out the bloom time of the azaleas making it less likely for a single, spectacular peak blooming period to occur. It also doesn't help the flowers are very delicate and are easily knocked down by rain or wind.

We stopped to see the Edible Garden located near the Visitor Center. The Edible Garden contains fruits, herbs, and vegetables.

Margery in the Edible Garden

Next to the Edible Garden is the Hammock Hollow Children's Garden. This 2.7-acre garden has places for kids to climb, dig, create, and discover. The entrance has a mosaic walkway made from pebbles.

Mosaic walkway made from pebbles

There is also a pebble-covered snake that forms a sand box.

Pebble-covered snake surrounding a sand box

One of the walkways passes through a faux canyon lined with nozzles misting water that looks like smoke.

Walkway through a faux canyon

At the far end of the canyon is a giant spider web that kids can climb on.

Giant spider web for climbing

By the time we finished our tour of the gardens we were hungry so we decided to try the Blue Palmetto Café located in the Visitor Center because it gets pretty good online reviews. They have soups, salads, sandwiches, and wraps for lunch as well as a few breakfast and snack items. Salads range in price from about $7 to $11, and sandwiches and wraps are about $6 to $10.

Margery had a turkey wrap with provolone cheese and cranberry mayo ($8.75), and Paul had a turkey and smoked Gouda sandwich ($8.95). Sides are extra. Unfortunately, they must have had a busy weekend because they were out of most of the sides, and the delivery truck hadn't yet arrived. Fortunately, the sandwiches themselves were both excellent.

Margery with her turkey-cranberry wrap and with Paul's turkey-Gouda sandwich in the foreground

After our delicious lunch, we headed back to the co-op. Since we weren't able to order any sides with our sandwiches, our tummies weren't quite full so we decided to stop at Maxwell's House of Fruit in Avon Park for dessert.

Maxwell's in Avon Park

We heard about Maxwell's from a number of people at the co-op. Maxwell's is a citrus packing house with a little country store where you can buy fresh citrus fruit, jellies and souvenirs; but their real claim to fame is their orange soft-serve ice cream. They also have vanilla, but hardly anyone gets plain vanilla. Most people get either orange-vanilla twist, which is what Margery had, or plain orange, which is what Paul had. Both were fantastic! The orange-vanilla twist tastes like an orange creamsicle, and the straight orange tastes like frozen orange juice.

Now our tummies were full, so we headed back to the co-op to relax for the evening.

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