Tropical Florida Gardens

Pink Ball, Dombeya x cayeuxii, can be found using the What's Blooming map (South Research Garden, location 4.)

I’ve recently created two maps for our visitors who want to wander our gardens in search of fruits and flowers.  One is the “What’s Blooming” map  featuring the locations of all the plants that are flowering or fruiting each month.  You can view the January map here and the list of corresponding plants can be viewed here, but there will always be a paper version of the “What’s Blooming” that you can pick up in the museum.

The second map is the “Orchids in Bloom” map showing the locations of blooming orchids.  I hope to update the orchid map every 10 days or so and it will also be available in the museum.

If you use either map while you’re here, please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions!

Britta Hanson Soderqvist, Plant Curator

Here’s a sneak peek at some of the blooms that will be listed in September’s “What’s Blooming” at the Edison and Ford Winter Estates…

The ylang ylang tree at the Edison & Ford Winter Estates has finally started blooming! The oils of this flower are used to make perfumes such as Chanel No. 5, so you can imagine how fragrant it is.  The tree is close to the fence along McGregor Boulevard in front of the Edison guest house.   There are just a few ylang ylang trees available for purchase in the Estates Garden Shoppe.

The Estates is seeing encore performances from the bangar nut tree (Sterculia foetida) and African pin cushion (Sarcocephalus latifolius) this summer.  Both bloomed in May and are blooming again right now.  The bangar nut is known for its mothball-scented flower and the pin cushion has a unique flower that is sweetly scented.  The bangar nut tree is in the Estates research gardens behind the Banyan Café and the pin cushion is next to the public butterfly garden behind the ticket office.

There is always something blooming at the Edison & Ford Winter Estates.  Take a look at what’s in bloom right now:

The Edison & Ford Winter Estates boasts a collection of over 350 orchids.  Take a peak at some that are blooming this month:

Here’s just a taste of what is in bloom currently at the Edison & Ford Winter Estates: