some palms at McKee Gardens

[Eric in Orlando]

A few palms I saw growing at McKee Gardens in Vero Beach, FL

old Roystonea regia, a survivor of the '80's freezes

Cocos nucifera

Areca catechu

Bismarckia nobilis

[Eric in Orlando]

Pritchardia sp., maybe P. pacifica ?

Licuala peltata var. sumawongii

Chambeyronia macrocarpa, loaded wih green fruit

Satakentia liukiuensis

[paulgila]

great pix,eric.love that a.catechu.wish i could grow any of the arecas here.

[TikiRick]

I had the opportunity to visit this wonderful, "Old Florida" garden during a palm expedition in the late 1980's. In my opinion, it looked pretty rough at the time, but some hard core members of the community were determined to bring this wonderful garden back to life. Here is a brief history of the garden, near Vero Beach.

In 1922, the McKee-Sexton Land Company was established in Vero Beach, Florida. This partnership purchased an 80-acre tropical hammock along the Indian River in 1929 and McKee Jungle Gardens was born.

With the help of landscape architect William Lyman Phillips, now known as the pioneer of tropical landscape architecture, the basic infrastructure of streams, ponds and trails was designed. Native vegetation was augmented with ornamental plants and seeds from around the world as Arthur G. McKee and Waldo E. Sexton set about assembling one of the most outstanding collections of water lilies and orchids.

By the 1940's more than 100,000 tourists were visiting McKee Jungle Gardens each year, making it one of Florida's most popular attractions. In the early 1970's, attendance dwindled due to competition from new large-scale attractions and the garden was forced to close its doors in 1976.

The land was sold and all but 18 acres were developed. The remaining acreage, zoned for additional development, sat vacant for twenty years. In 1994, the Indian River Land Trust launched a fund-raising campaign and successfully purchased the property on December 1, 1995 for $1.7 million.

[Shon]

Great pics Eric. Thanks for the background Rick. That Areca and the Satakentia caught my eye.

[Jeff in St Pete]

Great photos Eric. Love that Satakentia!

[Ken]

lovely palms, I get move back to da islands

[Eric in Orlando]

Its a really nice jungly garden. It has made a good recovery from the hurricanes. Quite a few old royals that survived the 80's freezes and big banyan-type Ficus. Quite a few clumps of unusual bamboo species has been planted so it will really bea nice bamboo collection when thse form mature clumps.

[SubTropicRay]

Thanks for posting Eric. This is another historic garden worth preserving.

[Kris]

Lovely place & beautiful palms...

love,

Kris

[bubba]

Eric, Great shots.I am now trying to recall the recent Post of a nearby neighborhood with some incredible McKee palms in that area.Lot's of mature rare stuff.

[gsn]

bubba I beleive it is a housing development (private community),that was once a part of McKee Jungle Gardens,but was part of the acreage that was sold off!

There was a thread recently here is the link

http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?sh...hl=Mckee+Jungle

Edited November 6, 2008 by gsn

[bubba]

Scott, That's it!Not as good as Redfish but stunning stuff.

[plantapalm]

I was at McKee Botanical the other day and took a few pics. Found a few other jewels not listed above so I thought I would post a few pics. Sorry for the sun glares on some of the pics ol junky camera.

Coccothrinax crinita

Phoenix rupicola

[plantapalm]

Zombia antillarum

Kentiopsis oliviformis

Chambeyronia macrocarpa

[plantapalm]

Butiagrus

I believe these are Acrocomia totai

a toasted Pritchardia pacifica

Hyphaene sp.?