While on our recent vacation to Florida we took a trip to the hidden gem that is Sunken Gardens. It was LaBre’s Birthday and she was able to pick any place she wanted to go since it was here day and this is what she chose. Believe it or not, I was actually pretty happy to take this trip. As someone who enjoys photography, I enjoyed the opportunity to try to get some photos of the flowers.
Sunken Gardens is considered to be a living museum and the garden is over 100 years old. It is home to over 50,000 different tropical plants and flowers. The garden was created by a man named George Turner. He drained an ancient lake that once covered the property and was left with a rich soil that fit very well with his love of gardening. The garden was a hit with the people who lived nearby so he began to charge for tours in the 1920’s. If you would like to learn more about the history of the garden visit their website here.
Places like this always amaze me, you drive up in a pretty urban area with a lot of buildings around then you park in what seems like a random parking lot and enter a pretty normal looking building. Once you enter you see a kids’ play area to the left and a desk to purchase your ticket in the middle of the room. Once you have paid for your ticket you go through a door behind you to the right and it is like you are stepping into another world. The entire time you walk around this large place you completely forget that just outside of the vine-covered walls there is an urban jungle.
Flowers:
Flowers, flowers everywhere!!! This is definitely what Sunken Gardens is all about. I am nowhere near being a botanist my knowledge of flowers stops at the color. I do however enjoy looking at them and there was definitely a lot of them to look at here. From planted bed to hanging pots they definitely had it all. I could talk about the flowers for the whole post but instead just take a look at the images below.
Trees:
Besides amazing flowers, Sunken Gardens is also full of spectacular trees. Honestly, I do not know much about trees either. I did learn a little about trees though. For instance, Cuban royal palm trees are some of the largest palm trees they normally grow to be between 66 to 99 feet tall and the average diameter is only 19 inches. Some also grow to be up to 113 feet tall. Compared to the wimpy palm trees you normally see around beach cities that is really impressive. It was also pretty shocking at first. You would walk up to this tree and look up and then keep looking up and finally see the top of the tree towering over you. Sunken Gardens did not just have one of these but a ton of these trees all around the garden. Sadly we did not get any good pictures of this trees because they are so tall but we did get a few pictures of some of the other trees.
Animals:
Among the flowers and trees, a myriad of animals was placed throughout the gardens. From a talkative parrot to a massive alligator snapping turtle that was able to blend in with the bottom of its pond. Honestly, if it wasn’t for MomLee I would have never noticed the alligator snapping turtle. I had already walked past the pond and he called me back to point it out to me. It is amazing that an animal that large can hide so well.
In other areas of the garden, they had some other turtles and even a few tortoises. The tortoises were a little shy and ended up going back in to there hide boxes when we walked up. Speared throughout the garden they had a few pounds filed with a lot of beautiful koi. It is always cool to stop and look at these fish and see how they all have their own unique pattern. They even had some more intricate koi that you do not always see due to how expensive these fish can be. Oh, and I can’t forget to mention the butterfly that we were lucky enough to photograph.
Sunken Gardens was also hiding a really cool animal exhibit. Okay well maybe they were not hiding it but we did not know about it until we walked up. They have flamingos! Being from East Tennessee that is a really big deal because we do not even have them at the zoo. We had not ever really seen many in person. That was a definite treat that we were not expecting.
Anoles:
We can’t forget about these little guys! Anoles were ALL over the Sunken Gardens. Please enjoy these pictures we captured of them while exploring the gardens.
Our Review:
All in all, we all ended up having a great time visiting Sunken Gardens. Even DadLee and BroLee said they enjoyed and they would normally rather be anywhere but a garden. The garden was vast sitting on 4 acres. It was also filled to the brim with beautiful flowers, trees, and animals. It was also very easy to find since it has a large sign on the side of the street that guides you to the parking area. Tickets cost $10 dollars per adult, which is a very reasonable price for all the garden has to offer.
If you are planning a trip to Sunken Gardens be sure to check out their website here to see the most up to date information about the garden.
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