Sunken Gardens: Annette and I always enjoy visiting Sunken Gardens when we take our annual vacation to the St. Petersburg/Clearwater area on the Gulf side of Florida. We are both...

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Sunken Gardens

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Jun 27, 2022 16:00:26 #

stavros Loc: East Tennessee

Annette and I always enjoy visiting Sunken Gardens when we take our annual vacation to the St. Petersburg/Clearwater area on the Gulf side of Florida. We are both members of the North Carolina Arboretum. One of the membership benefits is the reciprocal admissions program sponsored by The American Horticultural Society which entitles us to special admission privileges and discounts to more than 345 gardens throughout North America. We have taken advantage of free admission to visit the Chicago Botanic Gardens, Atlanta Botanical Gardens, the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden near Charlotte, North Carolina, and Sunken Gardens many times through the past few years.

The Sunken Gardens are 4 acres of well-established botanical gardens, located in the Historic Old Northeast neighborhood of St. Petersburg, Florida, The Gardens have existed for more than a century, and are one of the oldest roadside tourist attractions in the United States. The Gardens are now operated by the City of St. Petersburg, and maintained with the help of volunteers. Sunken Gardens are open to the public every day of the week. An admission fee is charged for entrance into the gardens and a yearly membership is also available, however as I mentioned above, Annette and I are entitled to free admission through our North Carolina Arboretum/American Horticultural Society membership.

Sunken Gardens retains their historical interest as an important example of a 1930s Florida roadside commercial attraction, and is probably the oldest commercial tourist attraction on Florida's west coast. The Gardens are open to the public for educational programs, tours, and special events, particularly weddings which have taken place for decades on the Wedding Lawn,[2] and in the banquet facilities in the Garden Room overlooking the unique garden setting.

The Gardens began in 1903, when plumber and avid gardener George Turner Sr. (1881-1961) purchased six acres of land,[3] including a shallow lake 10 feet (3.0 m) below sea level, which he drained to form his private "sunken" garden. Turner started planting papayas and citrus fruits along with other exotic plants on the rich soil surrounding his home. By the 1920s, Turner had opened a nursery and began selling fruits, vegetables, and other plants, and visitors were paying a nickel each to stroll through the gardens. In the fall of 1935, he fenced his garden and started charging an admission fee of 24¢. The Gardens eventually became widely popular, and from the 1950s through the 1970s were ranked among Florida's top ten commercial attractions. After Turner's death in 1961, his sons, Ralph and George Jr. continued to run the gardens, which were eventually passed on to Ralph's three sons. They eventually sold it to the city in 1999 for more than $2.26 million.

The Gardens currently contain over 500 species of tropical and subtropical plants amidst pools and cascading waterfalls, lushly planted in a collection of more than 50,000 tropical plants and flowers. They include a Japanese garden, cactus garden, and butterfly garden, and Chilean flamingos. Plants include bougainvilleas, royal palms, water lilies, shrimp plants, and fruit trees. The garden atmosphere is peaceful and many of the plants are quite large (compared to typical specimens) due to their long history of protection and cultivation.

I applied a painterly pastel effect to these photos using the legacy Topaz plugin, Simplify. Post processing also included adjustments and enhancements using PaintShop Pro, Luminar AI, and Exposure 6.