Ok, so…things don’t seem so great right now. i’ve had a cold with a horrible cough for over a week now. plus, of course, there’s the coronavirus spreading rapidly around the world…i feel that in order to maintain a bit of cheerfulness in these trying times, i need to keep writing about our trip, back when it was fine to fly and be in groups…
On Thurs. Feb 20th we headed for the Sunken Gardens after leaving our air b&b. I’m not sure where i heard about it but decided we should check it out because it’s been around for a long time and you know i like old timey stuff. It was in the north part of St. Pete, on the way to our next air b&b in Tampa.
A gentleman by the name of George Turner bought the Sunken Gardens land in 1903, drained the lake on the 4-acre property and planted all kinds of tropical plants, and by 1924 people were paying a quarter to tour the garden he’d created.
I took a bonkers amount of photos at the place but have pared them down nicely. i think the videos give the best idea of what the gardens look like. All the videos are very short, less than 30 seconds, which should be OK for the average attention span. for adults, anyway, i’m not sure about young peoples’ attention spans these days, it might be no more than a few seconds.
The garden was made a local historic landmark and they also added a few birds. i feel that this pool isn’t big enough for these flamingos.
a beautiful and shady place to sit – it was pretty darn warm that day, in the 80s with lots of humidity.
This is a Staghorn Fern. They attach to other plants and take in nutrients from them.
Some of the giant palm trees – i think they’re royal palms.
most of the plants were just so huge…
…and in the middle of all that, kevin sent me this picture. Our outdoor kitty, Lovey, followed Kevin over to Mom’s house and sat on the back deck peering in when Kevin went over to give Mom’s cat Hobbs some TLC. Hobbs growled at her, and that was probably a high point of her day. (Hobbs’s day, not Lovey’s)
Here’s a giant tree in the garden plus some spectacular bougainvillea.
And another Staghorn Fern attached to a tree.
the one good shot i got of a lizard while in Florida.
Incredible bougainvillea!
Here’s the very last video of the Sunken Gardens.
one funny thing i read in the garden’s brochure is that as the roadside attraction grew, they built the “world’s largest giftshop.” The gift shop today isn’t that large but i suddenly went into a buying frenzy there. they had many great things, reasonable prices, and i kept thinking “how am i going to get all of this in my luggage?”
whew, what a time!
ok then,
g. hughes.