Heathcote Botanical Gardens facts for kids
Heathcote Botanical Gardens is a beautiful five-acre garden in Fort Pierce, Florida, United States. It's a special place where you can explore many different kinds of plants. It's like a green heart for the area, full of amazing nature.
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How Heathcote Gardens Began
Heathcote Botanical Gardens started in 1960. It was first a plant nursery owned by Molly and Jim Crimmons. In 1986, local people bought the land. They wanted to create a public garden. The City of Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, and the State of Florida helped. Friends of Heathcote Botanical Gardens also gave money. This is how the gardens became a non-profit educational place.
Exploring the Gardens
Heathcote Botanical Gardens has many cool areas to explore. You can find a peaceful Japanese garden with a teahouse. There's also a calm Reflection Garden and an Herb Garden. You can even see a mini Rainforest Display. The Native Plants Garden shows plants that naturally grow in Florida. Kids will love the Children's Garden. There is also a special walk with many different palm trees and Cycads.
Other interesting plants you might see include:
- bamboo
- a banyan tree
- bromeliads
- Clerodendrums
- Clusia rosea
- Coccoloba uvifera
- Codiaeum sp.
- crotons
- orchids
- pineapple
- Tillandsias
Fun Events at the Gardens
One of the biggest events is the Garden of Lights. This is a major fundraiser for the gardens. During this event, the entire garden is decorated with thousands of tiny Christmas lights. More than 10,000 people visit each year. They come during weekend evenings leading up to Christmas.
You can also see the Adams/Peterson Pioneer house. This house is a copy of an 1870 "Cracker"-style home. It shows what life was like in Old Florida a long time ago.
The Amazing Bonsai Collection
Heathcote is most famous for its James J. Smith Bonsai Collection. This is the largest public collection of tropical bonsai in the United States. Bonsai is the art of growing small trees in pots. These trees are shaped to look like large, old trees in nature.
The collection has over 100 special bonsai trees. They are on display all year round. Almost half of the trees are different types of ficus. Some trees are very old, like a buttonwood tree estimated to be 200 years old. There's also a beautiful twin-trunk Jaboticaba tree. It was first styled by a famous artist named John Naka in 1973.
Who Was James J. Smith?
James J. Smith was a world-famous expert on bonsai. He had a nursery in Vero Beach, Florida. He learned from some of the best bonsai masters in the world. These included John Naka and Toshio Saburomaru. For many years, Smith held free monthly workshops. He taught many Florida bonsai artists. His bonsai trees are now in important collections around the world. Many books show his trees and talk about his work.
When he was in his 80s, Smith decided to give most of his private collection to Heathcote. He wanted them to create a good place to display them. Heathcote raised a lot of money for this project. They built a 10,000-square-foot garden. It has stone stands and a Japanese-style pavilion. This pavilion is a popular spot for weddings and garden parties. James J. Smith passed away in 2016.
See also
In Spanish: Jardín botánico Heathcote para niños
