31 Days of Garden Tours - Day 29

This post is part two of the FIT Botanical Gardens in Melbourne, Florida.  Yesterday's post has more photos and information about our trip to this wonderful tropical paradise.  

I promised yesterday that I'd show you some wildlife.  Well, here you go.  We met several turtles along the way.  The photo below is of two very friendly (or hungry) turtles in one of the ponds.  These are the same type of tiny green turtles that we used to have as pets when I was a child.  They can grow to be pretty large.  These were about 12-14 inches long.

The photo below shows a snapping turtle (on the left) that came to join them.  The guy on the right is climbing on his back, saying, "Hey, this is my favorite spot!" 

The gardens were planted by Dr. Terry Keuper, former president of the university, with the help of celebrated botanist, Dent Smith.  You can learn more about the history of the garden, as well as the species that adorn this beautiful hammock garden at this LINK

The plant above is Persian Shield, and we have it in our garden at the Golden Cottage.  We'd never seen it as a ground cover, and plan to adopt the idea to use around the trees in our yard.

A great idea for a bench, and I love the use of the flat stones .

 

I have to explain the photo above.  It is a HUGE Staghorn Fern that has fallen on the ground.  The top of the photo shows where it was attached.  These ferns grow so big and get so heavy that it takes huge chains to hang them from a tree.  They look great hanging, but when they grow, they become big problems. 

The flower above is Spanish Flag Lantana, and they are a favorites of butterflies.  A native plant, they grow profusely and are very hardy.  We have four different varieties in our garden.

 More Lantana, in a different color.  
 

The next two photos below are of the little school house at the entrance to the gardens.  So tiny, right?  I think you'll find the information on the sign very interesting.

That's my sweet husband, aka The Golden Cottage Gardener. 

There is so much beauty in G-d's world, and sometimes the very simplest leaf inspires me with awe.  In example, the two photos below:

Only two more days of tours, Gail-Friends.  Tomorrow, I'll be showing you around our garden here at the Golden Cottage.  Please come back by and sit a spell.  I'll have some sweet iced tea ready!

Blessings,

I'm linking up to the 31 Day Blog Event.

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