A garden spot sprouts

The Florida Botanical Gardens opened over the weekend, with the promise of a blooming future. Themed gardens and instruction about the flora of Florida will be staples in this Eden.

By JEANNE MALMGREN

© St. Petersburg Times, published December 5, 2000

LARGO -- Somewhere out there is a couple, destined to be husband and wife, who haven't met yet. Or maybe they just had their first date.

Fast-forward a year or two, when that couple decides to get married and one says to the other, "Let's do an outdoor ceremony. How about the Florida Botanical Gardens?"

By then, the wedding garden should be in full bloom.

Gardens, like romance, take time to mature. And in a couple of years, the Florida Botanical Gardens, a taxpayer-funded park that opened over the weekend, probably will be the "world-class" horticultural attraction its developers have promised. For now, though, it's new, and bare bones are showing.

Climbing roses have scarcely begun to cover a curved arbor in the rose garden. Blank spaces are visible between the small oyster plants used as ground cover in the tropical garden. And almost all of the newly planted palm trees are still braced by large wooden planks.

Even so, it's a peaceful place to stroll or sit and admire a little slice of nature, as many people were doing Sunday, even though that slice of nature is not yet in full splendor.

With the gardens in a raw, just-planted state, visitors have the rare opportunity to see a landscape created from the ground up. If you're looking for ideas for your own back yard, you can learn a lot about garden design and construction by wandering these curved paths.

For example, notice how a berm (a large mound of dirt, shaped and covered with mulch) adds elevation and interest to a landscape. See how tender tropical plants can be grouped around a water feature, which will help keep them warm on those rare cold nights in Florida. Notice the way small trees act as anchors for a garden design.

The five formal gardens unveiled Saturday join a sculpture garden landscaped with daylilies and bromeliads, which opened earlier this year at the new home of the Gulf Coast Museum of Art, south of the new gardens.

Other gardens to come -- a beach setting, a palm pavilion, a woodland shade garden, a hands-on children's garden, a sensory garden for the blind -- are under construction or still on the drawing board.

"It will probably be five years before everything is competely in," said director Judy Yates.

The Florida Botanical Gardens is part of a 180-acre complex formally known as Pinewood Cultural Park. The park includes the art museum and Heritage Park, a cluster of historical buildings that illustrate Pinellas County's pioneer past. Also on the grounds is the office complex of the Pinellas County Cooperative Extension Service, a part of the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. That building, surrounded by its own display gardens, will eventually be remodeled into a welcome center for Pinewood Cultural Park.

"We think we're totally unique in having this three-part combination of art, history and botanics in one place," Yates said.

At almost 200 acres, Pinewood Cultural Park is far larger than most other botanical gardens in the state: Both the venerable Fairchild Tropical Garden in Miami and Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota are a little more than 80 acres. Bok Tower Gardens, near Winter Haven, is 157 acres.

To visit the Florida Botanical Gardens when it's finished, you'll want to wear your walking shoes. Garden areas will be scattered all over the site, illustrating different levels of cultivation, from a largely untouched 60-acre nature preserve to the formal, manicured gardens that opened last weekend. McKay Creek, which was dredged and straightened in the 1920s, has been restored and now meanders through the middle of the property. A pair of bald eagles has nested in one corner of the site several years in a row.

Most of the project's $25-million price tag was funded by the Penny for Pinellas sales tax, but another $8 to $9-million will come from private donations. (Have $1-million to spare? You can have the shade garden or the specimen palm garden named after you. An extra $5,000? "Adopt" a magnolia tree.)

Other money has come from corporate donors (Florida Power gave $25,000) and through House Appropriations Committee Chairman C.W. Bill Young, R-Largo ($100,000, for a computer kiosk where visitors can learn about the plants they're seeing and find out where to buy them). Money to maintain the gardens will come largely from memberships; already the Florida Botanical Gardens has 400 members.

Sunday afternoon, as chilly winds raked the site, visitors wandered in and out of the walled garden, which resembles a Disney landscape with its formal fountains. Many families brought children bundled in jackets. A pair of pugs on leashes wore bright red sweaters. A plus for wheelchair users: The winding paths are smoothly paved, making them easy to navigate. Several people in wheelchairs were enjoying the gardens Sunday.

Not all the plants are labeled yet, but the signs already in place will help novice gardeners learn about plants' needs. Each sign includes the plant's English and Latin names, as well as its requirements for water, light and general care.

"We've been to Sunken Gardens, and this is right up on a par with that. In fact, I'd say it's better planned," said Don Kraus of St. Petersburg. Kraus, owner of a landscape business called Perfect Xeriscape, said he was getting new ideas from looking at the layout of the gardens. His girlfriend, Julie Barrios of Largo, had learned about orchids from an expert stationed at the entrance. Kraus questioned arborist Loren Westenberger about the Champion Tree Project, which plans to use the new botanical gardens as a "living library" of young trees cloned from huge trees considered the best of their species.

Elsewhere, visitors admired the cottage garden's perennial plants and the topiary garden's living green sculptures of Cupid and three bears climbing the wall, made of wire frames covered with moss and creeping fig. The spiral shapes of miniature junipers look like Christmas garland.

In the rose garden, Sam Skemp told visitors how to grow roses in the Florida heat. Skemp is one of several hundred county volunteers known as Master Gardeners, folks who helped with the installation of the new gardens and will be the work force that maintains it.

"This is going to be a spectacular botanical garden when it's finished," Skemp said. "It's well laid out."

Still, the contractor made some mistakes in installation that will have to be fixed. In the center of the walled garden is a grassy area that will serve as an aisle for brides to walk on their way to the wedding gazebo. Plans called for a strip of close-cropped Zoysia grass in the center, bounded by St. Augustine. Instead, it was reversed.

"If a bride tries to walk on that St. Augustine in her high heels, she'll trip," Skemp said, chuckling. "That's got to change."

No problem. Change is the lifeblood of a garden. Some plants work out, others don't. Planting beds get a facelift every season.

"This is a living thing," said Yates, nursing a cup of coffee while standing on a bridge over a rock-rimmed stream. "It will always change."

With a satisfied smile, she looked toward a slope where ornamental black sweet potato vine had begun to creep along the ground.

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