Vistas & Views in Selby Gardens

In the last photo log of the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens I've attempted to capture some of the vistas and views. I urge you to visit a public garden, arboretum, or even a local nursery near your home. The rewards are indescribable; my photos barely touch upon the experience.

The original Selby Mediterranean revival home which now houses a garden reading room and a cafe.

 A small shake roofed gazebo.

This is how I think palms should be grown in large groves, tall palms under planted with smaller palms.

Phormium tenax, or New Zealand flax, softening the walls of the conservatory and greenhouse.

Views of downtown Sarasota from the gardens.

Garden workshop building on the right where classes are held; condominium on the left just outside the garden confines. The pine echoes yet softens the tall white building.

 Bold use of analogous colors with coleus and impatiens.

A young palm starting it's life in a garden that's ever evolving.

A fountain cleverly planted with ferns.

Gary reflecting in the garden, captured unaware sitting on a bench.

Cone like blossoms of the Encephalartos gratus cycad palm.

My favorite palm of the day, Bismarkia nobilis, with it's blue gray foliage.

The coconut palm, loaded with coconuts, which I promised to show you.

Stained glass clerestory windows frame the interior of a large gazebo.

Another view of the small gazebo; the white barked tree dwarfs it in this long distance view.

A garden quilt on the wall of the tea room where complimentary tastes of fragrant teas can be had. The tea house is located in the former carriage house of the Selby home.

The gardens are on the shore of Sarasota bay; the bridge to St.Armands is in the distance.

 I associate the garden with the whole experience of being alive, and so, there is nothing in the range of human experience that is separate from what the garden can signify in its eagerness and its insistence, and in its driving energy to live - to grow, to bear fruit.

Stanley Kunitz