Gottfried Green

We visited the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota over the weekend. The gardens emphasis is on epiphytes- plants that live upon other plants, such as orchids, bromeliads and gesneriads. Since it's been said somewhere that you can grow anything down here (FL), it was extrememly inspirational to us thinking about Gottfried. She had many banyan trees which they were training to arch over walkways. All the mangroves along the water remained. She also incorporated bamboo along parts of the perimeter to block out the expanding development of Sarasota which she began to notice in the 70's. Where we are on the creek we look out over islands of mangroves along with the ones that grow all along the bank. We are hoping this keeps a feeling of sanctuary down by the water in the years to come. The history is very charming but ironically her husband made his fortunes in oil and mining industries. She was very forward thinking when she left her pristine property for use as gardens and research open to the public. You can bet it would be towering condos otherwise.

Labels: Nature