My Florida Trip, Part 1: Horticultural Beauty at Universal Studios Theme Park?

I'm just back from the trip to Central Florida that my husband, two children and I made last week (the last flight from Chicago was delayed by snow and we didn't get home until 4:00 am Sunday morning, which was somewhat tiring).

But the trip was lots of fun: we spent our first day in Florida at the Universal Studios "Islands of Adventure" theme park, then drove to the east coast of Florida, where we spent time on the beach and visited the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, and then we returned to Orlando for a day at Disney's Magic Kingdom. I also made my family spend a couple of hours at a botanical garden in Orlando.

After the long months of midwest winter, I was very happy to be able to see green grass and trees again, and as a gardener and garden blogger, I paid attention to (and took photos of) the plants that grow in Florida, many of which are very different from those I can grow here in Iowa.

I wasn't expecting much in the way of horticultural beauty at theme parks, but I was pleasantly surprised by Universal Studios. The level of thoughtful and creative planning of garden areas, as well as the excellence of their maintenance certainly contributed to my enjoyment of the day I spent there. And it turns out that Universal Studios has won an award for their efforts at sustainability as well.

The park is divided into different theme areas, which were marked by different horticultural styles. Let me share a few photos of outstanding areas:

Seuss Landing

The use of exaggerated topiary shapes goes well with the style of the Dr. Seuss books. This delightful creature looks right at home here.

The Truffula trees from "The Lorax" are enhanced
by clumps of ornamental grasses.

The lollipop topiaries in the background are suitably silly, as is this clever faux-topiary tree
that is actually a series of planters containing rainbow-hued annuals. Very creative.

These orange snapdragons (one of my favorite annual flowers) look stylistically right in this setting, and are blooming prolifically. Someone creative and competent is responsible for the plantings in the entire Seuss Landing area.

Harry Potter's Wizarding World

Hogwarts and Hogsmead are planted mainly with northern-looking conifers, which are appropriate to the Scottish setting of the Harry Potter books, but which do seem to be struggling a bit in the hot and humid Florida climate. 

More conifers.

A wholly artificial stage-set "shop" from Hogsmead: "Dogweed & Deathcap Exotic Plants and Flowers." The front windows of the shop, which cannot be entered, contain "plants" that can be used for spells and charms, and include a moving Mandrake Root (complete with grumpy little face) in the pot in the right window. (photo from Flickr,  sdettling)

A photo of the "Continental Divide" between the northern British conifer-filled world of Harry Potter on the left,
and the lush tropical foliage-filled Jurassic Park on the right. 

Jurassic Park

The Jurassic Park area contains what must be acres of lushly-foliaged scenes that are meant to evoke the ancient flora of prehistoric periods. Apparently, there actually were no palm trees during the Jurassic Period; ferns, ginkgoes, cycads and conifers flourished at that time (but one can hardly blame the designers of these gardens for including a few palm trees).

More Jurassic foliage. Very healthy looking plants. I can only imagine how much watering, cutting out of dead leaves and other horticultural maintenance must take place every morning before the park opens.

More exotic looking foliage, with an occasional flower.

An example of the attention to detail in Universal Studios park:
The concrete paths in Jurassic Park were impressed with palm frond
shapes while the concrete was still wet, to add a fossil-like look
to what otherwise would have been modern-looking concrete paths.

Other Areas

The Lost Continent area of the park is a vague mixture of middle-eastern Sinbad-inspired
areas and South American archaeological-looking areas.

Some xeriscape-looking plants in a gravel bed.

A tree with exotic-looking fluffy buds on it.
Someone obviously has taken time to think of unusual
plants to include in the park. Bravo for these unknown
horticultural planners, and for all the dedicated
and competent maintenance staff!

In my next post, I will share some photos of my trip to the botanical garden in Orlando that I managed to visit. Thanks for reading! -Beth