botanical gardens in vero beach

Yesterday, I headed south from Kissimmee, toward Vero Beach, birthplace of my dad. I had a day between Orlando and South Beach, so I had looked on a map to see what I could see.
Vero Beach.
Okay. What to see while I was there?
McKee Botanical Garden.
Sure! I like gardens!
I had to be sure to arrive in time to visit it today, though. This is the off-season for snow birds, so the place would be closed on Monday.
No problem!
(smile)

It was like stepping back in time.
Like, back to the late 1930's or early 1940's, when it was known as McKee Jungle Gardens.
As I walked along its curving paths,
I could just imagine my dad
and his little sister playing here while listening to the monkeys chatter.

I could see them walking under the
Garden Folly when it was new,
but built as a castle ruin,
as in European gardens.
I could see them walking over the
Stone Bridge and posing for their
photographs, probably in their
church clothes.

I could even see them walking
beside the little waterfall,
listening to its gentle gurgle,
admiring the many strange and
beautiful plants beside it,
with birdsong all around.
Then again, maybe I just wanted
to feel Daddy's presence there.

I don't know that his family ever came here.
They may not have seen all the many colors of waterlilies in this subtropical garden.
You thought the flowers were all white?
No, there are yellows and pinks and
deep, dark purples, too!

Odd orchids, like this one, snugged onto a mesh screen wrapped around this palm trunk, may have been part of the renovation in 2001, when the garden was reopened after being dormant and closed for 25 years.

These palms could have
very well existed when
the short film about the garden,
"A Man-Made Jungle",
came out in 1939.
That film, part of the
"Going Places With Graham McNamee"
travelogue series of shorts,
plays on a continuous loop
in the Hall of Giants.

When you visit the garden,
be sure to watch the film -
it's full of the corny humor
of that time period.
I watched it twice!
Now, time for some dinner!