Flamingos, Flowers and Geckos…My Afternoon at The Sunken Gardens in St. Petersburg, FL
In 1903, a man by the name of George Turner, Sr. had an idea. The plumber and garden enthusiast had recently purchased a plot of land with a shallow lake in St. Petersburg, Florida. After a while he decided to drain the lake and turn it into his very own garden filled with lush tropical plants and flowers from all over the world. Following the Florida real estate bust in the mid-1920’s, he took his hobby to the next level and began charging admission as a way to make money he desperately needed to keep his land. He officially opened Sunken Gardens as an attraction in 1936 and within a couple of decades it became a major attraction in Florida and was listed as one of the Top 10 tourist attractions in Florida. Unfortunately by the late 1990’s interest in the gardens faded and the sons sold the land to the city of St. Petersburg. Today Sunken Gardens continues to draw visitors from around the world who appreciate the beautiful gardens, famous flamingos and the gardens eclectic history.
Whenever I travel for work, I alway make a point of arriving to the destination a day early or staying a day or two after after so that I can explore the area. While it’s not a lot of time, it does give me the opportunity to check out a couple of attractions or museums that are special to the area. When my company decided to hold their yearly incentive trip in Clearwater, Florida last year, the first thing I did after booking my flight was read a couple of “best things to do near Clearwater” articles. One place that they all mentioned was the Sunken Gardens. As usual, I didn’t look at a map to see where it was located, so when we arrived I was really surprised to find out it was in the middle of a strip mall along a busy highway. However, once we bought our tickets and walked into the garden, the hum of traffic immediately disappeared.
I was impressed by how much was packed into the small, 4-acre garden…everything from thousands of species of tropical and subtropical plants, flowers, pools and cascading waterfalls, a Japanese garden, a cactus garden, a koi pond, and even a flock of Chilean flamingos! It gave me hope that one day that my attempts to turn our 1/4 acre backyard into a beautiful garden could be achievable. I am still unsure how I can convince my husband to build a habitat for flamingos, though!
Even though we had a map of the garden, I am actually really terrible at following them. I just like to wander and hope the people I am with know where they are going. If I am by myself I usually get turned around a few times. Thankfully my coworkers husband was with us and he kept us on the right track. Many times during our visit he was asked “so where are we now?” and “Are we going the right direction?” There were only a few times we had to backtrack due to my wandering.
The first thing that amazed me was the size of the plants, including the palm trees!
The second thing that amazed me is that many of the plants in the gardens have been there for over 100 years! It kinda made me feel like I had stepped back in time and was waiting for a dinosaur to step out from around the corner. Over the past year I have started an indoor plant collection, so it was always fun to spot something that I had growing in our own gardens or pots around the house.. I even got some garden ideas for future projects, especially for ponds.
I also couldn’t get over how vibrant and beautiful the flowers were.
The Orchid Arbor was also really beautiful. A year ago I was gifted an orchid plant from a friend and I have kept it alive so far! I am hopeful to add to my orchid collection at some point.
I was super excited to see the flock of Chilean flamingos (by way of the San Antonio Zoo), and what was really cool about their enclosure is that you could see it from several different angles during your stroll through the garden.
Sunken Gardens is also a sanctuary for an array of parrots, cockatoos and a very cute elderly kookaburra. All of the birds were rescued and acquired by the gardens after their previous owners passed away or could no longer provide care for them.
A tropical garden wouldn’t be complete without a Koi pond, and Sunken Gardens has a beautiful one with some of the biggest Koi I’ve ever seen!
Even though I was there to see the plants and flowers, I kept getting distracted throughout the gardens by all of the cute geckos skittering around. So cute! There were so many you had to be careful walking along the paths or you might squish one. Sadly we did see the remnants of some squished.
Sunken Gardens is truly a beautiful place with so much to see! If you are ever in the St. Petersburg or Clearwater, Florida area I highly recommend adding Sunken Gardens to your itinerary! I hope you get the chance to see it one day!
