We had visited this in October 2012, but most of the flowers had finished then. This time, we were lucky enough to be there when the azaleas, camellias, and magnolias were in bloom, set among the palms, ferns, pines, and live oaks. There were also orchids, which I did not expect. And several other flowers that I don't know the names of. If you want a peaceful, quiet day away from the hustle and bustle of theme parks, this is a good place to go. No bird pictures here, except for a cardinal that we saw. He was singing his heart out. Lots of flower pictures. We spent about three hours walking around, and could have easily stayed longer. When coming up the the gardens from the highway, we drove through orange groves. Rows and rows of trees laden with oranges.
Beautiful white orchids growing by the path way. Absolutely stunning.
Azaleas of every colour were blooming. The variety of pinks, ranging from pale delicate pinks to deep pinks, almost red, was astounding. I'm not kidding, there was colour everywhere. The difficult part was deciding what to photograph.
These flowers were just beginning to blossom. They were intriguing because of the petals - forming almost perfect concentric rings. Beautiful!
Dainty, delicate orchids. Walter had to move some of the leaves out of the way, so that I could get a good shot. And of course, I did the same for him.
The cardinal. He was playing hide and seek in the tree. We had a hard time finding him, but once we did, we kept our cameras trained on him. Perseverance does get a reward!
Sometimes the most interesting things are right at my feet. This piece of bark from a palm tree reminded me of a fish.
Walter will do anything to get a good shot. Here was lining up a shot of the bell tower. Of course, I had to take a picture of him taking a picture of the tower.
The Bell Tower. It's called the Singing Tower because there is a 60-bell carillon. There are concerts every hour for about 15 minutes during the day. Beautiful music that can be heard all over the park.
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