Palm Cottage Gardens

[Trópico]

#25 xButiagrus (mule palm)

#29 Aiphanes horrida

[Trópico]

#28 Astrocaryum mexicanum

[_Rich]

#25 xButiagrus (mule palm)

#29 Aiphanes horrida

Good call Frank! I was leaning toward xButiagrus for #25 - but my lack of knowledge on all the different Syagrus species prevented me posting that hunch.

[Central Floridave]

Thanks for the IDs. Come to think of it I do remember Dave Witt saying that was a mule palm.

[Central Floridave]

coffee brewed and starting to kick in!

First some History from a pamphlet:

In 1885, Henry Nehrlilng, a 31-year-old Wisconsin schoolteacher and naturalist purchased 40 acres of land in the newly founded community of Gotha.

In the early 1900's, Dr.Nehrling's Palm Cottage Gardens became a popular destination for thousands of tourists, nature lovers, and new Florida settlers.

Many prominent people of the era such as Theodore Roosevelt, John Borroughs, Liberty Hyde Baily, and Dr. David Fairchild visited.

The garden was Florida's first experimental botanical garden. He tested over 3000 plants for the USDA.

Dr. Nehrling passed away in 1929.

Jullian Nally, a pioneer in bromeliad propagation lived here unti his death in 1977.

more info on Jullian Nally:

http://fcbs.org/articles/Julian_Nally.htm

after 1977, the property was subdivided and in 1981, 6 acres was saved and was restored .

My words now:

Since however, the property looked to have been abandoned. There are million dollar homes abutting the property and shares the same small lake that the Nehrling property does.

CFPACS was invited to the garden as sort of a introduction to what the Henry Nehrling Society are trying to accomplish. The lady that gave the presentation said that after the property

was abandoned all the plants that could be moved was stolen by the huge nursery industry that is in nearby Apopka. This property was the springboard for many of the current plant

industries that still exist here in Central Florida.

[Central Floridave]

from Hempel drive an inconspicuous entry way.

[Central Floridave]

first view of the house. This property is thick with vegatative growth of everything. I like the informal bend of the easement into the house grounds. My immediate thoughts was this place needs a lot of work. Everything is overgrown with

nuisance vines and whatever can grow unchecked.

[Central Floridave]

Here I am following Dave-Vero (walking plant encylopedia) into the circle driveway. CFPACS all ready has their plants out and ready for the sale.

Just some thoughts here. The property didn't have much to look at. It was all overgrown and too jungly to really appreciate. However, the sense of history and the potential this

place has as a historical botanical garden is tremendous. I split off from the tour group and wandered around. At times, I felt like Nehrling himself surveying what could be

done with this property.

[Central Floridave]

old tree. I imagine at one time this tree had thousands of bromeliads around it.

[Central Floridave]

Hello, is Dr. Nerhling here today? If their were such things as ghosts and spirits, I'm sure he is here today watching us.

[Central Floridave]

I imagine back then is was safe to drink water directly out of the ground water.

[Central Floridave]

inside the house presentation:

[Central Floridave]

blurry photo, but we watched an inspiring DVD on the gardens. That is Eric-Leu Gardens on the wood floors. He has some expertise on historical botanical gardens! If you haven't been to Leu Gardens in Orlando you are missing one of the best. Leu Gardens is a World Class botanical destination.

[Central Floridave]

Screened in patios are mandatory when you live in the land of the mosquito:

[Central Floridave]

looking out back. It is a neat old house. It is amazing it has survived so long.

[Central Floridave]

looking towards the back of the house and the tour group.

[Central Floridave]

Two stories, we didn't get to go up there.

[Central Floridave]

There is a machete'd path down to the lake. This is how thick the bamboo thicket is near the water's edge.

I imagine if they need a money source they could thin out the bamboo and sell the canes.

[Central Floridave]

view of the lake. In Nerhling's time this lake was called Lake Audubon. Now it is called Lake Nally.

Dr. Nerhling was a professor in ornithology. I bet this was a very good place to study birds.

[Central Floridave]

walking back from the lake and near the house was this very old sago.

[Central Floridave]

side of the house. old chimney.

[Central Floridave]

towering oaks litter the property.

[Central Floridave]

front facade

[Central Floridave]

another view looking towards the back of the house

[Central Floridave]

that is all my photos from Nehrling's garden. Thanks Henry for letting us tour it.

from a google search I found this passionate letter:

Henry Nehrling's "Palm Cottage Gardens" was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 7, 2000. 28 Jan 2002

"Dear All,

Please pardon my open letter to everyone on this list as it is the only way I can communicate to almost everyone I have been in contact with concerning the old Palm Cottage Gardens in Gotha.

http://floridagarden...gotha/index.htm

[Central Floridave]

The drive back home and I drove through the very pretty neighborhood of Windemere. Real estate is pretty strong through here. It is conveniently located near Orlando and is amongst a chain of lakes. It also near the many hotels and theme parks. thus, you are going to get some wealthy people here .

[Central Floridave]

beautiful drive through here. I wish I had more time to take photos, but I wanted to get home, back to my own Palm Cottage Gardens!

[Central Floridave]

I tried to hook up with Tiger Woods and Shaquille Oneill for Lunch but the damn guard gate stopped me from getting in.

Isleworth is of course where Orlando's fealthy rich people live. (owner of Disney, plus many high paid sports athletes). The wall was pretty, I would love to get in there and photograph some of their landscapes.

[Central Floridave]

Oh the joys of highway travel...

[Central Floridave]

unplanned and major coincidence, my wife and son were driving back from Busch Gardens in Tampa and I passed them on the highway. We didn't plan it, I just drove by and said, hey, that is my family!

[Central Floridave]

I got home just in time for another great Florida Sunset....

[Central Floridave]

Thanks to Central Florida Palm and Cycad Society for another great reason to get out of the house!

CFPACS website:

http://www.ramcort.com/ms/index_files/index.html

[Dave-Vero]

Dave Witt's Allagoptera arenaria is thriving. He pointed out that split leaves seem to be precursors to bifurcated trunks--which would be really interesting morphology, but how would you go about studying that? Sacrificing a whole nursery full of mature palms to observe trunk bifurcation would be wasteful, expensive, nasty.

My only complaint about my own Allagoptera is that it's pretty well hidden in a back corner of the yard. Beautiful plant.

Dave's flock of Coccothrinax is neat, especially thriving C. argentata, the silver palm native to southern Florida (as far north as Palm Beach County). Unfazed by last winter's cold.

[Tala]

Central Fl Dave thanks for posting all these, it's really cool to see my place thru someone else's eyes – I've taken quite a few pics here but you found some angles I hadn't thought of ever, nice job. Some help w/ ID's:

the cycad in posts 6 & 7 is a 14 yr old Dioon spinulosum (oddly enough has yet to cone for some reason).

The Pandanus in post 8 is 17 yrs old, it has survived 23f in past, on the opposite side of the stem is a huge reminder scar (missing chunk of stem) from that event; last winter low was “only” 28f but duration the huge factor for us all. All it did was drop a bunch of green leaves.

The Dypsis in post 11 is 'mahajanga', a type locality of D.madagascariensis; that palm and an older D.ankaizinensis are almost identical now, not so when younger.

The Allagoptera in post 14 makes the “branched” fronds. Not sure why, perhaps that leaf is a newly forming spear at the exact time the bud splits. It's done this several times.

The Acrocomia in post 17 is A.totai, aka the cold hardy gru-gru palm. Aside from some cultural diff.'s there are some actual morphological charcters that separate it from the 'true' A.aculeata

post 18 is looking up into crown of Livistona mariae (purchased as), but I think its really L.rigida

the strange bamboo in post 22 is one of several new culms of Bambusa 'wamin', the dwarf Buddah-Belly

post 25 is indeed a Butyagrus Mule

post 26 is Leucothrinax foliage, not a mineral def. I've ever witnessed, not 100% on this but almost sure its variegation of some sort – but it doesn't show on every frond - need to investigate this further

post 27 is the female Bis, plantd in '93 as a 7g; the male behind her was a 7g planted in '95

post 28 is recovering Astrocaryum mexicanum - 29 is stem of Aiphanes horrida (formerly aculeata = caryotafolia)

post 32 is dead Veitchia winin, luv the fish eye lens …

post 35 is Chuniphoenix nana (humilis), not sure if they are separated anymore

post 37 is Sabal domingensis, germinated from seed in '96 and flowered for 1^st time this summer

Anybody has any questions ask away, will check in from time. But after I go pour out all the soda-pop, ditch the bacon, etc. Not even your new camera work could save him - theres a guy in a few pics that resembles me but apparently needs to lose about 20 lbs., and shave his head alittle more often – yikes ...

[Central Floridave]

Hey Dave, thanks for opening up your yard for the garden tour. I remember when you posted the photos of those bismarcks a long time ago. They really shot up. I guess we can say Bismarck palms are cold tolerant at least up to Orlando.

[Eric in Orlando]

Good photos ! I missed the morning meeting, worked late as we had an event Friday night at Leu Gardens. Dave's place is really growing nicely.

It was a great visit to PCG. Never been there before, it has excellent potential. I hope to see it get transformed.

[paulgila]

nice coverage!

thanks for posting!

[tikitiki]

How did you get here? If you look over your right shoulder as you took this pick you would have been looking at shaq's house.

The drive back home and I drove through the very pretty neighborhood of Windemere. Real estate is pretty strong through here. It is conveniently located near Orlando and is amongst a chain of lakes. It also near the many hotels and theme parks. thus, you are going to get some wealthy people here .

[Central Floridave]

"How did you get here?"

Beeline, then I-4.

On the way home I made a scenic route detour.

I called Shaq on the cell phone but he said he was in Boston. I then called Tiger and he said he was all tied up. So, I kept driving.

Thanks for checking out the photos! and thanks to Dave Witt, Henry Nehrling Society, and CFPACS and putting this on.

[SubTropicRay]

I would have loved to have seen Henry Nehrling's Gotha paradise in its heyday. It was a nice trip back in time seeing the old house and remaining garden.