Winter Park Horticulture

Winter Park, Florida is the ideal town to window shop and absorb culture in unique ways. From the great Saturday's Farmers Market, to dining al fresco with tapas and fine wine, finding great spices or the latest cooking tool then buying local artwork for your home, Winter Park is a shopper's paradise.  Walking is easy in Winter Park. Large sidewalks allow you (and your pampered pooch) to stroll under large Southern oak trees, espying landscape vignettes of themed gardens, and tropical plants softening the architectural façade of the quaint shops eager for you to stop in.

Chuck Trice, Winter Park's Assistant Director Chief of Landscaping oversees the landscaping crews as they maintain the trees and gardens throughout the city's parks while businesses create their own floral gardens in window boxes, containers, and landscape beds for their clients.

Take a stroll as we meander up and down, in and out of Park Avenue.  Do you know where you can find these great plant combinations?

 

 

Peacock topiary

 

Japanese garden

Eucalyptus tree

 

 

The little Carolina wrens love these flowers.

 

 

 

 

Helichrysum spp. Licorice plants in hanging baskets

Big bouquets of appreciate to Chuck Trice and his landscaping crew for bringing horticulture to Winter Park.  

What's Blooming at the Polasek Museum

Looking for a wonderful day of sculpture, Russian icons, sunshine, and a beautiful lakefront garden? Visit the Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Garden in Winter Park.

The Risen Christ, Resurrection of our Savior
1963, Albin Polasek

The museum is currently hosting The Holy Art of Imperial Russia, showcasing 17th - 19th century Russian icons and tryptchs. The artwork was impressive and inspiring, considering that nearly all Russian religious art were either voluntarily given up or taken physically and destroyed by the government during the 1917 Russian Revolution.

Despite coming out of winter, the day we visited sunshine and the museum gardens created a wonderful backdrop for Albin Polasek's bronze sculptures.  Here are some of my favorite annuals, flowers, ornamental shrubs, and succulents.

Abutilon

Abutilon 'Orange-Red'

Abutilon

Bromeliads

Agave Angustafolia marginata

                           

Bird of Paradise, Strelitzia reginae

Aechmea 'Burgandy'

Camellia japonica

Chinese Hat Plant,
 Holmskioldia sanguinea

Clerondendrum quadriloculare 'Starburst'

                           

 

Crown of Thorns, Euphorbia milli

Crown of Thorns, Euphorbia milli

Prickly Cycad, Encephalartos ferox

Firecracker, Russelia equisetiformis

Camellia in background, firecracker in front

Fishtail Fern, Nephrolepsis biserrata

Dianella, Geranium, and Lobelia

Gerbera Daisies

Honeysuckle vine, Lonicera spp.

Iochroma cyaneum

Lakefront tuteur

Loropetalum chinense 'Ever Red'

Loropetalum chinense 'Ever Red'

Medinilla

Pentas

Purple Firespikes,
Odontonema callistachyum

Snapdragons, annuals

Stromanthe sanguineas

Princess Flowers, Tibouchina grandiflora

Variegated ginger, Alpina zerumbet

Yellow rose

Polasek Museum landscape bed

Take time to go by and visit the Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Gardens.  The Holy Art of Imperial Russia will be available for viewing until April 13th.