Sunday, March 8, 2015

The Ringling Gardens

 

Florida Gardens

Florida Gardens   

There are some flowering trees that colour the landscape in the February gardens of Florida.  The Red Silk Floss tree is a large tree on the landscape with large flowers.  These pictures show the flowers on the grounds of the Ringling Gardens.  The flowers could be found along the paths - perhaps set there by the Ringling Gardens grounds crew.  

I didn't see many Florida gardens with roses. They need to be heat tolerant and there's an epidemic of thrips that consume the plants.  It takes constant insecticidal treatments to maintain a rose garden in Florida these days.  This picture of the rose garden shows its immense size and makes one aware of the work to keep it so attractive. 

An aspect of the Ringling Gardens were the sculptures and statues set along the pathways of the gardens - collected in Europe by the Ringlings.  There must be hundreds.  There is even a Dwarf Garden  - these are statues of dwarfs brought from Italy - a link with the circus theme. This little fellow isn't one of the dwarves, but does look a bit grumpy.  He's set against one the many Banyan trees on the property.

The Ringling Gardens were restored just over 10 years ago, yet they look perfect today as though they have always been cared for.

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