around the city
An Oasis of Flora
in a Buzzing City
By Sandra Schulman
WPBMagazine Senior Writer | Arts & Entertainment
Photos: Addiel Perera, WPB Magazine
O
n the far side of the Palm Beach
County Airport is a veritable
oasis of lush plants, ponds,
landscaping, sculptures and flowers.
Mounts Botanical Garden is a 14-acre
community garden that features plants
and flowers from around the world
along with classes, workshops, and
events to teach and inspire botanists. It’s
the oldest and largest public botanical
garden in the Palm Beaches, whose
beginnings trace back to the University
of Florida’s Cooperative Extension
Service that provided free and low-
cost agricultural education to the local
community.
The Garden exhibits help visitors un-
derstand what plants are environmen-
tally suitable for homes, commercial,
and public landscapes while also
teaching the art, science, and joys of
gardening.
On a scorching late May Sunday, I took
a drive out to the Gardens, located on
Military Trail across from the airport.
Driving into the parking lot, we’re met
by a full bloom entrance archway and a
blast of fragrant humid air. The winding
trails meander through several themed
gardens – the Begonia Garden, the Bulb
Garden, a Children’s Maze, an Edible
Landscape and more.
With the unique tropical climate in
South Florida, there are many questions We were particularly enchanted by the
and options about the plant life that can Butterfly Garden, a fluttering eyeful that
has a dozen or so different species of
grow and thrive here.
wpbmagazine . com
22
butterflies at any given time. The key to
drawing butterflies is having both larval
plants (host plants) for caterpillars and
nectar sources for the adult butterflies
they will become. The garden is planted
to resemble a meadow with various
flowers for both butterflies and other
pollinators like bees. Oddly enough,
many favorite nectar and food sources
of butterflies are mostly considered
weeds by regular gardeners. The
“weeds” in this garden include
Tassel-flower, Beggar’s Tick and Mist-
flower. It’s a sweet fairy garden, as the
butterflies flit from one flower to the
next.
Next came our favorite stop – The
Fragrance Garden. There is nothing even
close to what the heady, intoxicating air
is here, as Jasmine mixes with two kinds
of Gardenia and the exotic Ylang Ylang
tree. The Ylang Ylang is also known as
the Cananga tree, a tropical tree that
originates in Indonesia, and in the early
19th century spread to Malaysia and the
Philippines. The smallish star shaped
flowers grow in clusters, turning from
green to yellow year round, pulsing out
an impossible rich, heady fragrance
that is used in such luxury perfumes
as Chanel No. 5. The health benefits
of Ylang-Ylang and its essential oil are
used as an antidepressant, antiseptic,
aphrodisiac, hypotensive, and sedative
substance. That’s a lot of mileage for this
small flower, though the tree can grow
to several stories high.
wpbmagazine
•
j u ly t h r u s e p t e m b e r
2017