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2009 > Tours
TOURS
All tour prices include tip for driver
Wednesday, April 29, ~~~ Palm Beach - $35
Today you will see how Zone 10 treats
begonias. Palm Beach is a long barrier
island located between the Atlantic Ocean’s
Gulf Stream Current and Lake Worth. Yearly
temperatures range from 35° to 95°F with
humidity ranging from 55-100%. Begonias
that love these conditions thrive in our
landscapes.
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You will be
touring the Garden of the Four Arts where
Begonia poponoei grows waist high and
B. U475, B. thelmae, and B.
barsalouxiae grow along the edges of the
Jungle Garden pathways. After the
hurricanes, even more begonias were added to
this renovated garden.
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Next, we
visit a private garden located right along
Lake Worth, complete with a wooden Victorian
style shade-house, rare palms, and several
begonias that were planted after our last
convention.
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A short
distance down a walkway is the Flagler
Museum, where touring will add to your
knowledge of Florida history.
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Next, we are
off to lunch (on your own at nearby
restaurants).
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After lunch
we will have regained our strength so we can
explore a six-acre estate chock-full of
horticultural wonderment.
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Thursday Tour ~~~ April 30 ~~~ Members
gardens and Nurseries - $35
Three members are sharing their very
different yards with us today. Mounts
Botanical Garden has highlighted all three
properties on its annual Mother’s Day garden
tour.
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The first garden has an open look and is
full of colorful blooming sun-loving
plants. This collector’s garden is
highlighted by an arbor leading to a secret
garden, a pond with waterfall, a shade
house, and winding pathways all created by
the owner. High filtered shade provided by
palms and trees enable many begonias to
thrive.
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The second garden is enclosed overhead by
tall native cypress, oak and maple trees.
Several fishponds supply extra humidity
needed for eight different types of
maidenhair ferns, 80+ begonias, and many
odd, unusual plants, such as Angiopteris,
Dorestinia, and Monolena.
Trees provide vertical gardening space for
orchids, bromeliads, shingle plants,
philodendrons, and an Anthurium
‘Billifolius rex’.
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Next, we arrive in Loxahatchee to visit
Excelsa Gardens, one of the nurseries that
supplies exotic plants to the Philadelphia
Plant Show. They carry a wide variety from
succulents to tropicals.
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Then onto Tropical World nursery that has a
small lake and natural bogs complete with
lotus lilies adorning the nursery’s
surrounding landscape.
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We are then off to rest and relax around the
lunch table at the Wellington Club.
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To end the day we arrive at another member’s
garden where her acre holds huge Poinciana
trees, bromeliads, palms, tropical bamboo,
butterfly plants, tropical fruits,
brugmansias, and many, many begonias.
Several of the Yahoo begonia pictures posted
in the last year are from this garden.
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Friday Afternoon Tour ~ May 1 ~ American
Orchid Society and Unbelievable Acres - $35
Lunch on
your own before tour.
After our convention in 2000, we donated
several trays of four-inch begonias to the
newly located American Orchid Society in
Delray Beach. Today you will see them
several years later growing in the landscape
and complementing the AOS grounds and
enclosed orchid house. The gift shop offers
many souvenirs ranging from books to
glassware.
Then we travel to West Palm Beach to
traverse Unbelievable Acres. This property
was a blank slate thirty years ago and has
been developed over the years into a rain
forest of many rare and desirable plants.
The owner was a county extension agent for
30+ years and has recently retired to tend
to his plants full time. Seeing all the
begonias in this yard will be reminiscent of
how they grow out in the wilds of the
forest. Stands of cane begonias reach
heights of ten feet and stalks are two
inches in diameter.
Sunday Morning Tour ~~~ May 3 ~~~ Palm
Hammock Orchid Estate - $45
Leave 7:30 a.m. for PHOE, box lunch, return
to Hilton about 3:30 p.m.
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