TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

A Perfect Place To Get Away

ADVERTISEMENT

By MIKE DeWITT, Tribune correspondent

Published: January 27, 2008

TAMPA - It's so easy to miss. For years, the University of South Florida Botanical Gardens remained a closely guarded secret of die-hard fanciers of flora and of college students seeking relaxation and refuge from their tight schedules.

To go, you had to be in the know.

It was a detour that first brought me to the garden gate, and for that detour I will always be grateful. These nondescript gates are a threshold to a world that moves at nature's pace. Here, the snarls of traffic and the brick and mortar monuments to commerce are easy to abandon, if only for an hour or two.

Much of the fence surrounding these placid seven acres has been pressed in to service as a chain-link trellis. For its entire length, the keepers of this floral domain have planted all manner of climbing vines. They are so thick in some places that the highway just beyond them is blocked from view.

Nestled in the midst of it all is the gift shop, offices and a conservatory. Small and ensconced in a thicket of flowers and vines, it is here that Executive Director Laurie Walker does what must be done to guide and nourish a staff comprised largely of volunteers.

Clad in a polo shirt and slacks, Walker appears to possess the sort of good humor and boundless energy that is the sole province of those fully engaged in their life's work. At her side is Kim Hutton, an enthusiastic woman who oversees the garden's special events calendar.

A Full Schedule

Theirs is a pace that defies their relaxing surroundings. Each month brings new events to lure the unknowing to the irresistible. Uncle John's Band served "Music in the Gardens" in January. February will bring jazz, and the March festivities have yet to be announced.

And music isn't the only offering. Plant sales, orchid auctions and a "Cultivating Your Creativity" workshop are also part of the February schedule. Hutton bubbles with enthusiasm about the programs. All of these lead up to one of the garden's biggest fundraising events - The Spring Plant Festival.

The festival, scheduled for the weekend of April 12-13, will lure 5,000 visitors to the booths of over 70 vendors. "There's nothing it," Walker said. "You'll find experts to talk to about any plant you can grow."

Walker is quick to emphasize the importance of the Spring Plant Festival to the economic health of the garden. "A lot of people don't realize that we're self-supporting out here," Walker said. "We don't get any funding from the university."

But it isn't just the special events that bring more than 75,000 visitors annually through the garden's gates. The USF Botanical Gardens offers cultivation advice from a dedicated cadre of volunteer curators whose expertise ranges across tens of thousands of species of plants and flowers.

Dedicated Experts

I had the pleasure to encounter three such curators as they busied themselves among a prickly display of cacti and succulents. A visit to these gardens provides a fascinating discovery of the remarkable variety of plants that populate our planet.

I found Jagoda Edelman in her element. She was plucking weeds from the gravel bed that is home to dozens of spiny cactus plants ranging from the diminutive to the gargantuan.

Edelman and her fellow cacti curators Bob Gallion and Emily Laurenti volunteer their time and expertise twice weekly. Their duties range from keeping the exhibit manicured and healthy to preparing cuttings for public sale. But most important to them is the opportunity to share their knowledge with greenhorn and green thumb alike.

"And we would always welcome more volunteers," said Edelman, a self-taught cactus cultivator who is entering her fourth year of volunteer service to the gardens.

Also on hand at various times during the week are curators specializing in butterflies, bromeliads, begonias and orchids.

A Nice Place To Just Sit

But most of all, the USF Botanical Gardens is a great place to take a load off. Shade abounds, as do secluded nooks replete with quaint wooden benches and fragrant solitude. I paused for a sit among several dozen species of bromeliads, some in bloom while others waited out the winter for warmer days.

Trees grow on all sides, ranging from the bizarre thorny tower that is the silk floss tree to the more familiar arbors of live oak, complete with native orchids and resurrection ferns.

All bear a plaque telling the name of the tree and explaining its origin. Other signs explain the nuances of the plant's life. How it grows, where it grows, even why it grows. And perhaps this is the greatest gift of all, because to visit the USF Botanical Garden is to renew one's appreciation for the intricate beauty of Mother Nature's greatest work.

Mike DeWitt can be reached at

IF YOU GO

WHAT: USF Botanical Garden

WHERE: 4202 E. Fowler Ave., Tampa

HOURS: Weekdays, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, Noon-4 p.m.

ADMISSION: Free, except during major events

INFORMATION: (813) 974-2329

mikedewitt@tampabay.rr.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT