Karen and Robert Scott Florida Garden Redesigned
May 31, 2016 10:52AM ● By Linda Sechrist
For decades, nature has been acknowledged as a healing agent. In a 1924 speech to the Boy Scouts of America, President Calvin Coolidge reminded his young audience, “There is new life in the soil for every man. There is healing in the trees for tired minds and for our overburdened spirits and there is strength in the hills, if only we will lift up our eyes. Remember that nature is your great restorer.” This concept is one that Naples Botanical Garden continues to perpetuate in the design of its exhibits, where the sounds of breezes
The landscape design to develop the Karen and Robert Scott Florida Garden for the greatest use and enjoyment of visitors required someone with the knowledge and understanding of the environment, as well as the selection of plants that would perform well in it. No doubt, the great philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, who proposed that when nature had work to be done, she created a genius to do it, would agree that Raymond Jungles, a fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, was the perfect mastermind for the job.
Jungles, the founder of the Miami-based landscape architecture firm, Raymond Jungles, Inc., is a member of the dream team that helped to complete the master plan for the 170-acre Naples Botanical Garden in 2006. Jungles returned to focus his genius on the Scott Florida Garden for a more satisfying visitor experience that better reflects the diversity of plants that flourish in Florida.
What was your inspiration for the Karen and Robert Scott Florida Garden?
My inspiration was Florida’s native vegetation. We wanted to use an abundance of the plant diversity of our beautiful and unique ecosystems from the beginning and let that guide the garden design.
The opportunity to showcase the great gardening opportunities that are afforded by Florida’s climate was also a motivator, as well as my desire to have the garden inspire visitors.
View toward River of Grass and Lake
What in the garden reflects an Old Florida landscape?
It is not so much about what is in the garden, but rather what’s beyond it. Now, with the new Karen and Robert Scott Florida Garden, the beautiful views beyond are incorporated so that it is no longer an isolated garden, but rather one that is experienced by the visitor as an integral part of the entire master plan.
Our team brought the adjacent landscape in to make the entire river of grass, wetlands, bird sanctuary, lake and natural ecosystem beyond all work together to reflect what captivated author Marjory Stoneman Douglas about Florida’s natural beauty.
What is the takeaway for Karen and Robert Scott Florida Garden visitors?
I hope that visitors to the Karen and Robert Scott Florida Garden take home an appreciation of nature and an increased knowledge and understanding of Florida plants, as well as how and why they thrive and flourish here, so that they might use them in their home gardens.
Naples Botanical Garden is located at 4820 Bayshore Dr., in Naples. For more information, call 239-643-7275 or visit NaplesGarden.org.
