Pinecrest Gardens - what a week day treat!

     Tuesday I brought one of my best girl friends' down to Miami airport for her Puerto Rico flight.  As I was down there another one of my best girl friends wanted to hang out, so we thought what a gorgeous day to be outside...."Hmmm what to do"..."Oh I know!", I exclaimed, "let's go to Pinecrest Gardens.  The last time I was there was when it was Parrot Jungle, gosh that had to have been when I was in grade school, lol."   So off we went...and oh how glorious a day it was to play hooky from work for a couple of hours!  We were one of a few people there so it was peaceful and inspiring.  Unfortunately I didn't have my camera so I apologize for the poor quality of the pictures here taken with my phone (how odd that sounds, lol, "I took pictures with my phone" HA!) but I just have to share with you!

For those of you who are familiar with old
Florida, you may remember our local attraction
Parrot Jungle.  In 2007 PJ moved out to
Miami Beach (now called Jungle Island).

Luckily the Village of Pinecrest knew the priceless
value of what PJ left behind...gorgeous gardens!

The cichilid pond at the main entrance.

A rainbow of colors in the water lilies & black taro.

This banyan tree must be over 80 ft high, the
roots stretch from the ground to the canopy
 with lots of variegated philodendron's growing all over.

This is another amazing plant that is in the shrimp
plant family...anyone...anyone??  
It's the Pachystachy coccinea

I have never seen this plant before but it's a 
spectacular tropical shrub about 5 ft high with a gorgeous cardinal red & white plume of flowers.  Anyone know what this is? :)

Absolutely stunning rain forest type plant,
again a no-nameer.  Just a suggestion here Pinecrest
Gardens...plant tags! :)

So many layers of texture & color...the
original old Oak trees & the new tropical
understory additions.

So much going on here, it is hard to gain a sense of the depth to this view but boy its stunning!

Bromeliads on a fallen tree trunk.

When Strangler Fig's attack...LOL!

          

Beautiful koi fish in one of their tropical lagoons

A composition of texture & color, lol

It's such a shame that you can't see all of the
depth and size in these pics.  This goes straight
back for about 30 feet but it looks so 2-d here :(

Here again the tree is about 70 ft high
& the foliage goes back about 40 ft to the
areca palm line. Massive!

Kind of an eerie reminder of how we cage animals 

        

The triptych above is a perfect example to showcase the enormousness of the jungle here.  I kept backing up to try & get the entire tree in the frame but to no avail.  In the picture on the left, I was about 20 feet from the super cool covered walkway where you can see the Banyan tree grew completely in & around it.  In the middle picture I am about 50 feet away and in the third picture I am standing all the way down the winding pathway about 80/90 feet away.  Now when I turn around from where I am standing to look the opposite direction, the picture below is what you will see.... :)

Some of the coolest sculptural Banyan
tree roots ever!

Remember these trees have been here
since the 1930's..YEOWZER!

            

      

This is one of the most spectacular places in South Florida!  If you haven't gone yet...here's your personal invitation from me!  As you are walking through a covered dark pathway, wondering where it's taking you.....all of a sudden it opens up to this breath taking vista of classic Old Florida.  Linda & I just sat here for about a half hour enjoying the moment.

Talk about vintage!  These are the original tables
& umbrellas for the picnic area, tres chic!

Another Banyan covered pathway

The plant on the left is actually the purple
bouganvilla covering this seating area in the
top of the picture above.

Covered seating with terra cotta tiles and
our indigenous coral rock for the grotto.
A great place to cool down on a hot Florida
afternoon.  What a view over looking the grassy knoll.

A croton in bloom

Next to the firey red croton is this amazingly spectaculare
cool blue shrub.  I would LOVE to know what this is!
Again no identifying plant tags...whaaa!  The color just pops
out at you!

Original sconces on the coral rock wall
& yes the green corrugated plastic is
original too.  A very ingenious lighting effect.

As we were leaving the light was streaming
in and illuminated this otherwise plain
planting area.

Let there be light!

A study of purple :)

And that my friends is our afternoon at Pinecrest Gardens....what are you doing, are you still here....GO GET out there & enjoy yourselves!