One of several beautiful orchids we saw in the Naples Botanical Garden.
On our way down to the Everglades after visiting with our son and his family in Safety Harbor, Florida, we stopped In Naples on Thursday. Having never been there, we asked the locals what to do. One thing was to check out the Naples’ Pier. Not impressive. The other was to visit the Naples Botanical Gardens, which turned out to be fantastic. It is chock full of tropical plants from around the world. We spent three hours wandering down its numerous paths. Being on the move, we didn’t have much time to research what we were seeing but want to share some of the plants we admired. Enjoy.
Another orchid. like the one above it was living on a tree.There were enough water lilies scattered throughout the garden that Monet could have spent a year painting them.They came in a multitude of colors.And where you have lilies, you have to have lily pads, right? This photo also gives a sense of the tropical paradise the gardens display.Like the lilies, the pads came in a variety of shapes and colors.In their own way, they were as impressive as the leaves. Oh to be a frog…The trees also had unique, weird personalities. This was a cannonball tree. We considered this tree even stranger. A sign announced it was a Ceiba Erianthos. Now you know. There will be a quiz.Or how about this? It’s called a screw pine and we could only wonder how it got that name. There were a multitude of palm trees in the garden, as one might expect. Many were covered in vines like this one.A close up of the vines. Quite beautiful.This tree had its own unique collection.Time for a little color. This plant was labeled an Annatto.When the pods open they display seeds that, apparently, are quite important to creating natural dyes.Have you ever checked out a banana tree?We heard a guide say that this was a red bellied woodpecker. It must have been hiding it. (Red headed was already taken.) It was one of the few birds we saw in the garden.Colorful leaves were everywhere. My mother used to love plants with colorful leaves. At any given time, a half dozen or so could be found in our house.A beauty.As was this.While on the subject of unusual…And suddenly, this fellow was warning us to leave.He wasn’t alone. More importantly, nature was calling, so we called it a day.On the way out, we came upon animals dancing in a circle. Of course Peggy had to join in the fun, positioning herself between an elephant and a giraffe, which takes us back to Africa. On Friday, I will be featuring crocodiles.
Peggy and I are down in the Everglades without an internet connection. I should be back to responding to comments and reading blogs this weekend.
Wandering through Time and Place 