The Salty Gardener: Nature Coast Botanical Gardens

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Nature Coast Botanical Gardens

1489 Parker Avenue

Spring Hill, FL 34606

www.naturecoastgardens.com

Hello my friend ~

Last week we were on a trip to Florida for a wedding in Spring Hill which is 40 minutes north of Tampa. While there I came across this delightful, little botanical garden. The gardens are maintained by the Spring Hill Garden Club. There was no charge to enter the gardens. When I arrived at the gardens the volunteers were scurrying around to cover up the most tender plants as it was COLD and a freeze was fore casted. As we on the way to the airport the next morning in the predawn hours I noticed it was 35 degrees. I was happy that all the growing things had survived their near death experience!

I hope you enjoy these photos of the Nature Coast Botanical Gardens.

The gardens are divided up into 23 themed gardens though the general feel of the place is that of a shady woodsy retreat. Paths topped with wood chips and fallen scrub oak leaves meandered around and in and out of shoulders of azaleas and banks of tropical plants.

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My favorite gardens were the Memorial Garden and the Desert Scape. I probably liked them the best because they were the areas with the most flowers blooming!

The Memorial Garden

Along the perimeter of the Memorial Garden was some sort of evergreen hedge and behind the hedge was a row of interesting shrubs. They grew about 10 or 12 feet high and had red flowers that looked like bottle brushes. Here they are:

Guess what the name of this flower is? Yep, that's right, they are called Bottle Brushes.

The Desert Scape

I have no idea what the large tree behind the hedge was. It looked like a giant cactus tree. My only complaint of this place was a certain lack of identification markers. A Yankee like me is not familiar with all the plants that grow in Florida. If anyone knows what it is, let me know! It was loaded with these fat, promising buds: