by Libby Boren McMillan

We Floridians are known for loving our gardens. And why wouldn’t we, when we live in a place boasting year-round sunshine and moderate temperatures? For inspiration, we often turn to other outdoor spaces, whether nearby or far-flung. So stow your clippers, slip off your Crocs, and discover some of the finest horticultural respites in the southeastern United States, each with its own unique reason for visiting.

Florida Flora

Established in 1938, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden (FTBG) in Coral Gables is an eighty-three-acre attraction named for Dr. David Fairchild, founder of the United States Department of Agriculture’s foreign seed and plant introduction division. In the late 1800s, Fairchild was one of the first to introduce Florida to the mango and avocado. The doctor’s pioneering work is the foundation upon which rests one of the largest tropical fruit collections in the world today.

FTBG emphasizes the importance of tropical fruit as a worldwide resource for nutrition and sustainability. Visitors will also learn about exotic fruits such as the jackfruit, mamey sapote, sapodilla, canistel, abrico, caimito, Spanish lime, and tamarind.

The garden is also known for its extensive collection of palms, vines, flowering trees, succulents, and cycads. Scrabble players might mentally file the word “cycad” away for future scoring opportunities. But they’ll also learn that the plant resembles both palms and ferns and has been around since the Jurassic period.

Homestead is home to the intriguing thirty-acre Fruit and Spice Park, the only garden of its kind in this country, due in part to South Florida’s unparalleled climate. Especially exciting for foodies and cooks, Fruit and Spice Park introduces visitors to a host of herbs, spices, nuts, fresh fruits, and veggies as well as exotic edible plants important to foreign cultures. Bamboo, popular today due to the green movement, is represented with more than sixty varieties. Visitors can eat their way through this mouth-watering park, enjoying bananas, grapes, and more, as they look and learn.

Miami Beach Botanical Gardens (MBBG) offers a bundle of unique opportunities for gardening enthusiasts. In addition to its own four-and-a-half-acre garden, with orchids, tropical plants, and trees, and a “living wall” vertical landscape, this organization often conducts special guided tours of surrounding gardens. A recent trip to an organic farm in Homestead included a farm-to-table lunch with a celebrity chef.

March brings the chance to take a tour of private residential gardens on Miami Beach. In April, MBBG hosts an event called Palms—Incredible and Edible, with a tour of palms at the garden, a taste of “swamp cabbage,” and even a fortune teller doing “palm readings.”

Florida’s west coast is home to the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens on Sarasota’s lovely bayfront. As if its collection of six thousand living orchids weren’t enough to motivate a visit, Selby Gardens showcases both open-air and under-glass plants, many of which were collected during staff expeditions to tropical rain forests. The institution’s greenhouses are world renowned. The site, which include two historic houses, also contains a koi pond, splendid banyan grove, outdoor butterfly garden, bamboo pavilion, succulent garden, and the chance to safely see a multitude of colorful yet poisonous dart frogs, should one be so inclined. (Children, in particular, love these brightly hued creatures.)

While it may not be relevant to the typical visitor, it’s worth noting Marie Selby Botanical Gardens’ significance to academics and growers throughout the world. In addition to its outstanding horticultural library, the organization also owns an extremely valuable collection of living and preserved plants, 94,000 in its herbarium alone.

Need to brush up on your epiphytes? No problem. This Sarasota destination is known round the world for its collection, which includes algae, lichens, mosses, ferns, bromeliads, orchids, Spanish moss, seaweeds, and countless other organisms that attach to or grow upon a living plant.

In Central Florida, the town of Lake Placid is known for its signature plant, the low-maintenance caladium, a perfect choice for gardeners whose thumbs are not quite green. Called the “Caladium Capital of the World,” the region has been home to these colorful crops since the 1940s. Field upon field of colorful blooms provide a real visual treat. Lake Placid’s caladium fields have been compared to the tulips of Holland and are, naturally, a lot easier to reach. A festival celebrating this cheery crop is held annually during the last weekend of August.

Take your camera for the drive through the farmlands, and start thinking about which spots in your own garden stay free of sun. Large beds of caladiums bring a profusion of color to any shaded garden area, with very little work or worry and with no negative impact on the environment. They host no pests, require no fertilization or insecticide, and are odor free.

Highly regarded as one of the finest Japanese gardens outside of Japan, the tranquil Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach features six different types of gardens. Its historical-based gardens really set it apart, yet it is the overt emphasis on relaxation and attunement to nature that speaks to those within its borders.

Visitors relish the Morikami’s many surprises, such as a cedar gate hand-crafted in Tokyo in a centuries-old style or the large Ishidoro stone lantern from Japan, erected in 1681 as a monument to a shogun before making its way to the United States.

There’s no finer display of bonsai trees in the southeast than at the Morikami’s Japanese gardens. The collection places special emphasis on those bonsais that flourish in Florida, so anyone looking for an exacting but relaxing hobby might want to pay a special visit. The word “bonsai,” incidentally, means “tray planting,” apropos for the tiny container-bound trees that inspire so many.

Listen closely and you might hear the garden’s bamboo growing. Bamboo figures prominently in Japanese culture and grows wild in Florida. Seeing it in a traditional Japanese setting is memorable, as are the Morikami’s numerous spots for taking a breather and soaking up the ambience. Waterfalls, tranquil lakes, and rock formations all do their part to soothe the spirit. It’s hard to imagine this peaceful getaway is just minutes west of I-95.

Farther north, in the land of Southern belles and moss-draped oaks, lies Alfred B. Maclay Gardens State Park in Tallahassee. Planted in 1923 by an affluent northern couple who made northern Florida their winter home, Maclay Gardens features a romantic secret garden. Visit in January through April, however, to fall under the spell of the Deep South’s signature: camellias and azaleas in full bloom. The Maclay house is open during these months; peak blooming season is mid-to-late March.

Situated between picturesque Lakes Hall and Overstreet, the Maclay Gardens makes a lovely spot to spend an entire day. Recreational opportunities range from picnicking, walking, kayaking, and cycling to swimming, fishing, and even horse riding.

Growing in Georgia

The Peach State presents gardeners with a divine spot well worth a visit. Nestled in the rolling hills of western Georgia, near the hot springs Franklin Delano Roosevelt found crucial, is Callaway Gardens. Golfers will instantly recognize the name. Yes, it’s that family, which realized decades ago that what were then failing Georgia farmlands in a sublime setting could be bought and converted into a garden-based resort sprawling across thousands of beautiful mountain acres.

Therein lies the surprise: The word “garden” normally brings to mind a traditional garden setting, not the massive lakes and pine-tree forests that surround Callaway’s vast array of lodging options. Exploring the roads of Callaway Gardens also leads to the discovery of plenty of amenities: a highly rated tennis center, bicycle trails, multiple golf courses, a stunning memorial chapel in the woods, a spa, a huge beach, a water-ski pavilion, miniature golf, and a boathouse.

Of course there are lots of garden-centric components on this vast property, which was green long before green was cool. The butterfly house teaches which plants attract fluttery friends, while Mr. Cason’s vegetable garden (named for Cason J. Callaway, the site’s founder) is inspiring to anyone wanting to grow a little of their own food. Callaway Gardens is unparalleled each spring when its iconic azaleas burst into bloom. The forty-acre Azalea Bowl that holds them contains more than 3,400 red, pink, and white hybrids.

Save time to be stunned into silence by the beauty of the Sibley Horticultural Center at Callaway Gardens, with its stunning modern architecture, twenty-two-foot indoor waterfall, lush vertical garden, appealing sculptures, main conservatory, and gorgeous outdoor gardens. Time spent here is sure to induce future mind’s-eye visits.

Throughout the year, a full schedule of events features everything from gardening symposiums to water-ski tournaments and hot air balloon festivals. Golfers will be pleased to accompany avid gardeners: Callaway’s top-rated Mountain View course gets high marks from both Golf Digest and Golf magazines and for over ten years has served as the site of the PGA Tour’s Buick Challenge.

Georgia is also home to one of the most spectacular gardens in the entire country, the Atlanta Botanical Garden (ABG). This thirty-acre wonderland of woods and gardens is mecca to orchid growers. The six-thousand-square-foot Orchid Display House wows right away with a stunning entrance and orchid-draped pergola. Breathe in these fragrant wonders to experience the same intoxication that bends a bee to their will; pollination is its pleasure if it can only refrain from swooning in such a heady environment. Orchid fans will love seeing the gardens’ Madagascar orchids, most of which are found nowhere but on the remote island off the African coast.

Follow the map to the “Outdoor Collection” to enjoy the new hydrangea collection. Summer bulbs, such as canna and gladiolus, throw off a burst of colors when peaking in late May and June. Late spring is the perfect time to visit the astounding Rose Garden.

If the man-eating plants of Little Shop of Horrors were your idea of a good time, then you’ll take great satisfaction in knowing the ABG is home to 140 species of carnivorous pitcher plants, which use nectar glands to lure birds, frogs, and insects to their slippery mouth. The pitcher gets its name from its shape and the liquid it holds, in which drunken victims drown once they slip and fall in.

The best feature at this Atlanta attraction may well be the master gardener on staff, who will provide solutions to gardening dilemmas by phone or email, at no charge. Call 404-888-4769 or e-mail planthotline@atlantabotanicalgarden.org.

Carolina Charmers

Just two hours east of Atlanta is South Carolina’s Clemson University, which holds the South Carolina Botanical Garden, a highly varied 270 acres. Visitors stroll through an arboretum and woodlands, past managed meadows and fish ponds, all the while surrounded by the abundance of wildlife these gardens attract. Several nature trails allow one to explore on foot; paved trails open up more possibilities for cyclists and drivers.

Heading toward the South Carolina coast one finds the popular Edisto Memorial Gardens in Orangeburg. Named for the river along which it lies, and situated on land rich in Civil War history, Edisto Gardens attract six hundred thousand visitors a year. Spring is a particularly breathtaking time, when dogwoods, azaleas, and crab apples explode into bloom.

The roses here also prove a popular draw. Home to Orangeburg’s Festival of Roses held each May, these particular gardens contain past and present award-winning roses from the All-America Rose Selections. Edisto is one of only twenty-three test gardens in the U.S. where desirable hybrids are recognized each year. Rose enthusiasts will glean both knowledge and inspiration from the hundreds of species found here.

Charleston, the romantic gem of the south, is well suited for a garden-themed visit with its string of plantations along verdant Ashley River Road. Middleton Place, dating from the 1700s, showcases America’s oldest landscaped gardens. A two-to-three-hour tour allows time to enjoy its breathtaking formal gardens, which include perfectly manicured terraces dropping down to the river. Calling these gardens gracious would be an understatement.

On the same river road lies Magnolia Plantation, the gardens of which attract enthusiasts from around the world. Opened to the public in the early 1870s, the gardens at Magnolia Plantation have sections that are actually as old as 325 years, making them America’s oldest unrestored gardens. What’s unique about Magnolia is that the same family has held title to it for more than three hundred years; while each generation has added its own touch to the gardens, they’ve done so with great respect for what their predecessors set about to create.

Daffodils, camellias, azaleas, and a host of other beautiful flowers do their thing each spring. And these gardens offer one amazing setting after another, from the mystic beauty of a foggy lake bridge to the iconic towering oaks of the South.

Between Charleston and Myrtle Beach lies Brookgreen Gardens, a peaceful 9,200-acre setting incorporating both forested swamps and salt marshes but famous for its massive collection of outdoor figurative sculptures from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Listed as a National Historic Landmark, Brookgreen was a rice plantation in the 1770s, when many of its oak trees were planted. Its dogwood garden was completed after World War II. Historians will find the Lowcountry Center’s Cultural Garden intriguing; it displays herbs and vegetables grown during the property’s plantation period.

Whether you have a green thumb that’s the envy of all your neighbors, or you like to soak up the visual splendor resulting from someone else’s efforts, the southeastern United States is bursting with horticultural destinations worth a visit. Mother Nature can’t be tamed, but she can certainly be shown to great advantage. Relax and have fun discovering which gardens are your favorites; all provide a cocoon-like respite from life’s pressing matters.

Freelance writer Libby Boren McMillan is a frequent contributor to Times of the Islands and RSW Living.