Gaylord Palms

[Fred Zone 10A]

Just returned from Central Florida.  On the way to the Orlando airport I stopped for an hour at Gaylord Palms, a very nice hotel/resort near Disney World.  The hotel is about nine floors tall with a massive central atrium.  They've done a marvelous job landscaping the interior.

Here's a photo showing a general view.  Note the glass roof.

And here are two closeups of a palm we don't see in California--Areca vestiaria.

If you palmaholics are interested, I'll post more photos.

[palmazon]

I think people are afraid to respond to anything with "Gaylord" in the title

so I'll speak for the silent majority - more, please

[paulgila]

i'll second that!

[DoomsDave]

Fred!

More more more . . . .

Hmm.  Wonder what the insurance is on that glass roof?  I can picture embryonic hailstones grinning in anticipation of that big day . . . .

dave

[SunnyFl]

Yes, definitely more, please!  The palms are awesome - had no idea they had such a collection there.

Dave, I would hope they used impact-resistant glass.  I think they might have had to - if their codes are like ours, just a thought.

[Trópico]

I've been there and it's incredible.

I wonder, the person/people who put together and maintain that palm landscape must be in teh palm know-how; why don't we see them in this forum? And if they aren't, then some of the more difficult specimens are going to die, they probably have the $$ to just remove & replace.

BTW, that's a breathtaking Areca vestiaria! With that specimen who needs C. renda? 

[Kris]

Dear Fred  

to be honest with you iam impressed

with that huge glass-house kind of structure.

no words to explain_Wow,Awesome structure,

here more than the lipstik palms,the plants impressed

me less,but human structural excellance is what

impressed me.

iam a person who admires what is avaliable in nature,

but that gaylord structure is a civil engineers delight,

i hope all the guys who do terrefic landscaping near the

pool & roof tops will certainly agree with me.

great pictures and the structures are indeed hair-raising.

thank you.

love,

Kris.

[MattyB]

I love the Gaylord photos.  And when it comes to Ketchup, my wife says, "I like Hunts". :cool:

[Dave-Vero]

I never heard of the place.  Must be the latest convention monster hotel.  

Florida doesn't seem to get many really serious hail storms.  Hurricane Charley, three years ago, did hit Orlando airport with a 100+ mph gust, which smashed some glass and left a big cleanup bill.

[DoomsDave]

(Dave-Vero @ Oct. 02 2006,16:33)

QUOTE

I never heard of the place.  Must be the latest convention monster hotel.  

Florida doesn't seem to get many really serious hail storms.  Hurricane Charley, three years ago, did hit Orlando airport with a 100+ mph gust, which smashed some glass and left a big cleanup bill.

You ao appear to be correct.  FL certainly doesn't get the monster hail that places like Nebraska get.

Or Minnesota, like these ice-balls near Minneapolis:

[DoomsDave]

Here's what the hail did:

[DoomsDave]

Here's one from NE.

Six inches (15 cm) long, ladies and germans!

dave  (ow, my achin' sacrailiac . . . . )

[galveston1602]

I was there a few years back for a conference, seems like I arrived right on the tail end of the 3rd hurricane to go over them that year, actually my flight was delayed by a day because of a hurricane...  Though the center didnt seem to be any worse for wear..

Ill have to see if i can dig a few other shots out but, these will do for now.

[SoLando]

Surprisingly, I've never been there! Thanks for the pictures!

[BS Man about Palms]

(MattyB @ Oct. 02 2006,13:03)

QUOTE

I love the Gaylord photos.  And when it comes to Ketchup, my wife says, "I like Hunts". :cool:

You know Matt, most of my Ranch hands say " I like Hunts, too"!  I hardily concur!  ???

[Fred Zone 10A]

By popular demand, here are some more photos:

First, a view from the top of the structure in the middle that galveston1602 shows in his pics.  This is of a group of royals.  Do they look happy?

And here are a couple Phoenix dactylifera.  I was surprised to see quite a few in Central Florida--I thought it might be too wet and humid for them.

Here's a portrait view of the atrium and roof.  Notice that all of the rooms have their balconies on the inside of the hotel.

[DoomsDave]

Fred!

Did you stay there?

dave

[JeffreyApolloBeach]

Hi,

I will be going to this hotel in November for Thanksgiving...I will be looking for that Areca vestiaria.

For Christmas 2005 we stayed at the sister hotel in Nashville.  Same concept, a building several stories high with a glass roof forming an atrium in the middle.  Beautiful hotel with great tropical landscaping, and great restaurants.  I did not take a camera with me, but I did have my video camera.  I tried to take pictures of the frames from my home movie but they came up with poor quality.  Here is the link to one of the pictures.

Jeffrey

Apollo Beach, FL - zone 9b

http://thumb19.webshots.net/t....MG]

[SunnyFl]

(Dave-Vero @ Oct. 02 2006,16:33)

QUOTE

I never heard of the place.  Must be the latest convention monster hotel.  

Florida doesn't seem to get many really serious hail storms.  Hurricane Charley, three years ago, did hit Orlando airport with a 100+ mph gust, which smashed some glass and left a big cleanup bill.

Maybe because our upper atmosphere isn't cold enough to layer more ice onto the precipitate?  We're fortunate in that we don't seem to have those horrid baseball-sized hailstones.

The vestie is beautiful.  They definitely can hold their own against the C. rendas.

[Fred Zone 10A]

Did you stay there?

No.  I attended The Cycad Society board meeting in Lakeland, about 40 minutes west on I-4.  At the suggestion of our host I met him at Gaylord Palms on my way to the Orlando airport, paid $10 for parking and walked around the place for an hour.  My colleagues stayed for dinner at one of their restaurants, but I had to catch my flight back to LAX.

Here's another photo, this time of Caryota mitis.  I didn't know they get that tall.  BTW, I double checked the base of this palm and it is undoubtedly C. mitis and not a multi C. urens (they have that, too).

[DoomsDave]

Oh, yeah, they get THAT TALL, though not here in Cali, ask Louis Hooper . . .

dave

[Kris]

Dear Galveston & Fred  

hey guys U are my buddies,and U have made

my day !

i think Neofilis & others know that one such glass

house garden exist in Kew (England).

but gaylord site appears as mother of all glass houses.

i wish to be in one place other than heaven is that gaylord

hotel,its truely heaven on earth with those lush vegitation.

and if roof area is sealed from external climatic influence

then how is climate inside this area controlled ? is it through

an air-condition with climate controll_any guesses.

thanks for those lovely pictures.

love,

Kris.

[Neofolis]

Great pictures.  I seem to recall Larry saying a while ago that glass rooves had been outlawed, but it may have been specific to Pinellas.  My memory is not that brilliant, so it may not have been Larry or Pinellas, plus I don't know how the law would apply to existing structures.

[SubTropicRay]

Great photos.  This garden is quite an experience.

[Eric in Orlando]

It is rare but there can be hail storms around here. Back in March 1992 we had 2 seperate hail storms pound Orlando. The first was more concentrated on the north side of town but the 2nd was widepsread. The hail was about the size of a grape. A big storm swept through and about a minute before the hail fell there was a loud roar. We were under a tornado warning. We thought it was a tornado coming so headed for the center of the house. Then the hail started pounding the house, it was the cause of the noise. I remember the big trees were partially defoliated. The hail was about ankle deep and lasted about an hour before it melted. It wrecked a lot of commercial greenhouses on the NW side of town and you saw cars for several years covered in dings. That is the only time I remember a damaging hailstorm here.

[Dave-Vero]

I had a not-so-bad grape hailstorm this spring.  Heliconias were badly shredded, bromeliads bruised, but palms didn't mind much.

Thanks to the Cycad Society, members of the Central Fla. Palm and Cycad Society got to bid on those nice cycads from California.  Dioon merolae for me, on the logic that pine-oak forest in Chiapas is a promising habitat for doing well in Florida.

[Fred Zone 10A]

Dioon merolae for me, on the logic that pine-oak forest in Chiapas is a promising habitat for doing well in Florida.

Dave,

Then I met you at the Bok.  I was the one taking the money.

Dioon merolae should do very well for you and those stiff "venetian blind" leaflets are marvelous.  It's going to want the same growing conditions as Dioon edule.  Dioon merolae will be the topic of one of the 2007 issues of The Cycad Newsletter.

and if roof area is sealed from external climatic influence then how is climate inside this area controlled ? is it throughan air-condition with climate controll_any guesses.

krisachar,

Indeed, Gaylord Palms has a massive air conditioning and heating plant that maintains the internal temperature in the low 20 degrees (Celsius).  They must use enough electricity to power a small town.

Humans don't like a lot of humidity, but many tropical palms do.  Check out this Cyrtostachys renda.

Even though it's in the water, it doesn't look so good.  I don't know if you can tell from the photo, but the leaves are browning.  I think that's because it wants more humidity.

[Trópico]

(Fred Zone 10A @ Oct. 03 2006,11:59)

QUOTE

Even though it's in the water, it doesn't look so good.  I don't know if you can tell from the photo, but the leaves are browning.  I think that's because it wants more humidity.

I think it wants more heat. They use humidifiers all over the place. C. rendas hate prolonged low 20s.

[Fred Zone 10A]

I think it wants more heat. They use humidifiers all over the place. C. rendas hate prolonged low 20s.

That makes a lot of sense.  I thought it rather cool inside even in the late afternoon.

Here's another shot.  Can anyone identify the species?

[Trópico]

:cool: /swoon

[Dave-Vero]

Fred,

Yup, I'm the one with three Dioon merolae.  They might become a little breeding colony someday.  The narrow leaflets are really wonderful.  

I also picked up a gorgeous Zamia variegata at the CFPACS sale, grown by GTC Palms.  It deserves a place at Gaylord's--it has the perfect rainforest look.  It'll join a couple of recently-purchased Rhapis laosensis from Searle Brothers and maybe some variegated cast-iron plants, Florida wild coffee (Psychotria), and maybe a few native perennials to make a sort of tropical hedge on a shaded side of the yard.  

I'm becoming impressed at the prospects for cycads in our central Florida landscapes, even if the death of Cycas plants may have left a sour taste.  

By the way, I should have taken a photo of the entry to the meeting building--the circular bed of coonties and Sabal causiarum is looking great.  Hard to believe it's relatively young.  Do coonties make it in California?  With us, they live in both limestone and acid sand settings, and they tolerate freezes, so they'd seem good prospects at least as far west as the Texas hill country.

[SubTropicRay]

Some photos of Gaylord taken in summer 2005

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