Heathcote Botanical Gardens is a five-acre subtropical botanical garden located at 210 Savannah Road, Fort Pierce, Florida, United States.
Heathcote is a non-profit, 501 (C)3 educational foundation that bills itself as the "Green Heart of the Treasure Coast." It began in 1960 as the commercial nursery of landscape architect Molly Crimmons and her husband, Jim. Heathcote Botanical Gardens was established in 1986 when the site was purchased by local citizens with contributions from the City of Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, the State of Florida and Friends of Heathathcote Botanical Gardens. [1]
It currently includes a Japanese garden with teahouse, Reflection Garden, Herb Garden, Rainforest Display, Native Plants Garden, Children's Garden, and a Palm and Cycad Walk.
Other garden plants include: bamboo, a banyan tree, bromeliads, Clerodendrums, Clusia rosea , Coccoloba uvifera , Codiaeum sp., crotons, Encephalartos gratus , orchids, Pandanus utilis , Petrea volubilis , philodendrons, pineapple, Podocarpus gracilior , Tillandsias, and Zamia pumila .
The Garden of Lights is a major fundraiser that sees the entire garden decorated with tens of thousands of tiny Christmas lights. It draws more than 10,000 people each year during weekend evenings leading up to Christmas. [2]
The Adams/Peterson Pioneer house is a replica of an 1870 "Cracker"- style home that shows what it was like to live in Old Florida. [3]
Heathcote is most well known for being the home of the James J. Smith Bonsai Collection, the largest public display of bonsai in the country. [4] The collection has more bonsai on year-round display than any other public exhibit in the United States. Although there are 26 species represented in the collection, almost half the trees are species of ficus. The more than 100 specimen bonsai range from a huge buttonwood, estimated to be 200 years old, to a magnificent, twin-trunk Jaboticaba, originally styled by John Naka in 1973.
James J. Smith was an internationally recognized authority on bonsai who operated a wholesale bonsai nursery in Vero Beach, FL. [5] He learned from some of the most famous bonsai masters in the world including John Naka and Toshio Saburomaru. For decades, Smith conducted a free monthly workshop at his Durastone Nursery on Old Dixie Highway. He was mentor to several generations of Florida bonsai artists. His bonsai are in numerous important collections around the world, and numerous books picture his trees and discuss his work.
When he was in his 80s, he agreed to give most of his private collection to Heathcote if it could develop a suitable display area. Heathcote conducted a major fundraising campaign and developed a plan for a 10,000-square-foot garden complete with stone stands and a Japanese-influenced pavilion that is a favorite scene for weddings and garden parties. [6]
Smith died in 2016. [7]
Bonsai is the Japanese art of growing and shaping miniature trees in containers, with a long documented history of influences and native Japanese development over a thousand years, and with unique aesthetics, cultural history, and terminology derived from its evolution in Japan. Similar arts exist in other cultures, including Korea's bunjae, the Chinese art of penjing, and the miniature living landscapes of Vietnamese Hòn non bộ.
Longwood Gardens is a public garden that consists of more than 1,100 acres of gardens, woodlands, and meadows in the Brandywine Creek Valley in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, United States. It is one of the premier horticultural display gardens in the United States and is open to visitors year-round to enjoy native and exotic plants and horticulture, events and performances, seasonal and themed attractions, as well as educational lectures, courses, and workshops.
The Birmingham Botanical Gardens are a 15-acre (6-hectare) botanical garden situated in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England. The gardens are located 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) south-west of Birmingham city centre at grid reference SP049854. Designed in 1829, the gardens are Grade II* listed in Historic Englands's Register of Parks and Gardens, and retain many original features and layout, which was designed by the landscape gardener and horticulturalist John Claudius Loudon. The site is notable for its range of glasshouses and gardens, which display a wide variety of plants and previously, birds. Birmingham Botanical Gardens is managed by Birmingham Botanical and Horticultural Society, a registered charity. The gardens are open daily to the public with paid admission.
The Atlanta Botanical Garden is a 30 acres (12 ha) botanical garden located adjacent to Piedmont Park in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Incorporated in 1976, the garden's mission is to "develop and maintain plant collections for the purposes of display, education, conservation, research and enjoyment."
The United States National Arboretum is an arboretum in northeast Washington, D.C., operated by the United States Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service. It was established in 1927 by an act of Congress after a campaign by USDA Chief Botanist Frederick Vernon Coville.
Hidden Lake Gardens colloquially known as Hidden Lake 755 acres (3.06 km2), is a botanical garden and an arboretum operated by Michigan State University situated in the Irish Hills of southeast Michigan. The Gardens are known for their large collection of native and nonnative trees, shrubs and flowers. HLG was given to Michigan State University by Harry Fee in 1945. Today it is visited by nearly 45,000 people annually. One facet of the Hidden Lake Gardens mission is "To preserve an undeveloped area of the scenic Irish Hills, providing a place of beauty and inspiration for public enjoyment."
The Jerusalem Botanical Gardens (JBG) is a botanical garden and a center of botanical education and research in Jerusalem, Israel. The largest botanical garden in Israel, it features over 6,000 plant species from around the world, arranged in phytogeographic sections, including Australia, South Africa, Europe, North America, Southwest and Central Asia and the Mediterranean.
The University of Michigan Matthaei Botanical Gardens includes botanical gardens, natural areas with trails, and several research-quality habitats and is part of the organization Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum. It was established in 1907.
The Rhododendron Species Foundation and Botanical Garden (RSBG) on 22–24 acres is a nonprofit botanical garden specializing in rhododendrons in Federal Way, Washington. As of 2006 the Foundation's mission is devoted to the conservation, research, acquisition, evaluation, cultivation, public display, and distribution of rhododendron species. The gardens contain over 10,000 rhododendrons, set out as a woodland garden among native conifers.
John Yoshio Naka was an American horticulturist, teacher, author, and master bonsai cultivator.
Carrick Hill is a publicly accessible historic property at the foot of the Adelaide Hills, in the suburb of Springfield, in South Australia. It was the Adelaide home of Sir Edward "Bill" Hayward and his wife Ursula, and contains a large collection of drawings, sculptures, antiques and paintings. Completed in 1939 and built in the style of an English manor, it is one of the few period homes in Australia to have survived with its grounds undiminished and most of its original contents intact.
The Larz Anderson Bonsai Collection at the Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts is one of the premier collections of bonsai in the United States and includes a Hinoki Cypress over 250 years old.
Indoor bonsai are bonsai cultivated for the indoor environment. Traditionally, bonsai are temperate climate trees grown outdoors in containers. Tropical and sub-tropical tree species can be cultivated to grow and thrive indoors, with some suited to bonsai aesthetics shaped as traditional outdoor or wild bonsai.
The National Bonsai Foundation (NBF) is a nonprofit organization that was created to sustain the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum. NBF also helps the United States National Arboretum showcase the arts of bonsai and penjing to the general public. The National Bonsai and Penjing Museum is located on the 446-acre (1.80 km2) campus of the U.S. National Arboretum in northeast Washington, D.C. Each year over 200,000 people visit the museum. Distinguished national and international guests of various federal departments are also among the visitors.
Ulmus parvifolia, commonly known as the Chinese elm or lacebark elm, is a species native to eastern Asia, including China, India, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. It has been described as "one of the most splendid elms, having the poise of a graceful Nothofagus".
Kew Gardens is a botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its living collections include some of the 27,000 taxa curated by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, while the herbarium, one of the largest in the world, has over 8.5 million preserved plant and fungal specimens. The library contains more than 750,000 volumes, and the illustrations collection contains more than 175,000 prints and drawings of plants. It is one of London's top tourist attractions and is a World Heritage Site.
Yuji Yoshimura was a second-generation distinguished bonsai master who taught traditional Japanese techniques and aesthetics to enthusiasts in the West.
The Stellenbosch University Botanical Garden located in the historical center of Stellenbosch is the oldest university botanical garden in South Africa. The Garden is relatively small and houses an enormous diversity of plants, both indigenous to South Africa and introduced species. It is open to the public.
Bonsai is a Japanese art form using trees grown in containers. Similar practices exist in other cultures, including the Chinese tradition of penjing from which the art originated, and the miniature living landscapes of Vietnamese hòn non bộ. The term "bonsai" itself is a Japanese pronunciation of the earlier Chinese term penzai. The word bonsai is often used in English as an umbrella term for all miniature trees in containers or pots. This article focuses on the history of bonsai in Japan and, in modern times, worldwide.
The Luis Vallejo Bonsai Museum is a public access museum located in Alcobendas, Madrid, Spain, dedicated to the display and study of the art of bonsai. The museum was opened in 1995 and is one of the most important in Europe in its class. The museum presents the personal collection of Luis Vallejo as well as specimens donated by others. The collection is widely considered one of the best outside Japan, with multiple trees having received important awards in Spanish and international competitions.