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Nature and art overlap at Bok Tower Gardens, a verdant canvas laced with seasonal color. Strategically placed plantings sculpt the view, and preservation of endangered plants is carefully orchestrated.
By MARY JANE PARK
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 19, 2001
LAKE WALES -- There's no need to hurry toward Bok Tower Gardens. More than likely, you'll experience adventure along the way there: wildfires and traffic accidents that close the road on Interstate 4, stop-and-start driving through Brandon, Miss Ruby C. Williams' produce and folk art stand on State Road 60, near the Hillsborough County line.
The carillon tower is visible from a distance, but not from the entry gate to the gardens. The drive inside the park, through citrus groves, feels a bit long, but I'm breathing deeply now. My pulse has slowed, and my shoulders are relaxed.
A comforting whisper of breeze through the oaks, palms and their ribbons of moss greets visitors on the short walk from the parking lot; dark, verdant foliage soothes the eyes that so recently squinted into the early morning sun.
Thank Edward William Bok for the gifts of music and greenery. He was born in the Netherlands, immigrated to the United States and spent many a warm winter in Mountain Lake, a private residential community near the gardens, taking evening walks to the top of Iron Mountain, Central Florida's highest ridge.
As publisher of the Ladies' Home Journal, he was a social activist who lobbied Congress and his readers to stop the slaughter of egrets. The fashion industry prized their feathers, more costly than gold. For his autobiography, The Americanization of Edward Bok, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.
Bok purchased the ridge land and commissioned Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., son of the landscape architect whose work shaped Central Park in New York City and the gardens at Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C., to design it. Olmsted was instrumental in the planning and development of Mountain Lake and was the obvious choice to create a horticultural framework for Bok's hilltop land.
Calvin Coolidge dedicated the gardens and carillon in February 1929, "for visitation by the American people." They have sought refuge here since.
These days, David M. Price oversees the space, which is known as a "green-on-green" garden because it flourishes throughout the year. At its peak, in late February and early March, camellias, azaleas and dogwood are in spectacular bloom.
Few amateur gardeners get to see the fruits of their labors over a long stretch of time. We are more likely to dig around in annual beds, plant a few tomatoes and cast gloomy looks toward skeletal jacarandas, rejoicing when they bloom despite a late cold snap.
Price, the director of horticulture, has worked at Bok Tower for 14 years. He venerates the work of Olmsted and other predecessors, who left behind notes about what works and what doesn't, plus a long list of recommended plants.
His design approach is one that some of us might take in using an heirloom for a contemporary purpose. In the more than 70 years since it was established, the sanctuary has evolved from a sunny garden to a shady garden. Price adheres to Olmsted's ideas more than to his original plantings.
Bok's -- and Olmsted's -- legacy is that "the gardens would be like a series of rooms," Price says. "The plant masses actually guide the visitor on a subconscious course."
The long approach to the gardens is part of the master plan. So is the placement of a now-mature oak that blocks views of the carillon tower until you're just past the tree. Then it seems to appear out of nowhere.
"It was meant to be a meditative garden and a stroll garden, like a museum," Price says. "Future plantings would be (changeable), like the paintings on a wall."
Price, also an accomplished sculptor, uses color, texture and shape to design the space, even consulting an artist's color wheel. Time-release fertilizers sprinkled in the flower beds minimize maintenance somewhat. He wants "the feel of an oak hammock, a place of mystery, lots of places to meander, lots of quiet."
In fact, workers start early and shut off maintenance machinery around 11 a.m., and caretakers are "buying property along the entry road to preserve the vistas" and shut out traffic noise. Consequently, you can lose yourself in the woodland "rooms."
On a recent stroll, I saw an imperial philodendron (Philodendron speciosum) in bloom, its flower as pink and luminous as the inside of a conch shell. Price says birds and wildlife are more prevalent after the carillon's last daily concert at 3 p.m., when visitors begin to leave the park. He and I saw a dozen or so partying squirrels near the tower one afternoon, but I also glimpsed a red fox speeding through the grass past the reflecting pond at midmorning. The koi are among the plumpest I have seen. The staff does not stock the pond; water birds would make quick snacks of smaller fish.
Cygnets -- baby swans -- recently hatched at the park but have been relocated until they are able to fend off predators. Their daddy is suspicious of all males, regardless of species. As Price and I walked along the bank, Mr. Swan shadowed us, staying close to the water's edge.
The gardens collaborate with the Center for Plant Conservation in St. Louis, established in 1984 at the Missouri Botanic Garden to preserve rare and endangered plants. Bok Tower sends seeds from all the federally listed endangered plants on its property to the center for cryogenic (freezer) storage.
"Some of those seeds appear to store very well, and some of them don't," Price says. "One thing we're trying to do is ascertain which ones will survive storage, and the ones that don't, we're trying to find out why they won't.
"A lot of people don't realize that there are endangered plants," Price says. He can cite 40 plant species that exist only in Central Florida. He calls the Lake Wales ridge an archipelago, a home to some scrub species that "are like a snapshot in time" of primordial Florida.
Bok Tower has an endangered plant garden to help educate visitors and perpetuate various species.
"Some of these plants," Price says, "I don't know if you can go anywhere else in the world and find them.
"It's kind of like a beautiful piece of symphonic music. You take out the oboe, then a trumpet, then a violin. ..."
You're left with a wholly different composition.
Bok Tower Gardens information: (863) 676-1408; Web site: http://www.boktower.org.
Hours of operation: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, with admission until 5 p.m.
Admission: adults, $6; children 5-12, $2; members, children younger than 5, free. Free admission 8 to 9 a.m. Saturdays.
Group rate: Available with a minimum of 15 or more people and preregistration.