THORTICULTURE DRESSES THE STAGE FOR GAYLORD PALMS' UNIQUE FLORIDA STORY

If you ask Tim McColgan to describe his role as manager of horticulture at Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center, he would claim to be a full-time horticulturist/part-time storyteller.

After all, everything at the massive 63-acre resort tells a story of the Sunshine State. While the architecture and design set the stage for the Florida theme, the landscaping – composed of nearly one-half million individual specimens – "dresses-out the stage and helps the story come to life," says McColgan.

The horticultural staff cares for the interior and exterior landscapes of the resort, including the plant life under the massive 4.5-acre atriums. The indoor landscape supports the stories of the three atrium themes: Key West, St. Augustine and the Everglades. McColgan – who calls Gaylord Palms "a hotel built around a garden" – has his hands full. The total collection represents a multi-million investment in landscape assets.

True to the resort's namesake, McColgan's gardens contain examples of more than 19 different palm genera, including coconut palms and Cuban royal palms that normally do not grow above the frost line. "Since we maintain a constant temperature of 68-72 degrees year-round, we are able to grow plants that are only found in South Florida and other tropical environments," he said.

HORTICULTURE DRESSES THE STAGE





















While more than 60 California date palms were transported across the country to create a "sense of arrival" at the resort's imposing grand entrance, the interior palms, McColgan claims, make up what is certainly one of the largest indoor palm collections around. The vast interiors cape is dotted with more than 500 specimen palms that vary in type, depending on their location. Stately royal palms, for instance, line either side and give the St. Augustine Atrium a "living structure," framing Emerald Plaza.

Twenty-two tropical coconut palms rise from the sandy "beaches" of the Key West atrium, where Hong Kong orchid trees, gingers, anthurium and color beds filled with luxuriant ground covers and punchy annuals lend an explosion of color to a sunny setting dotted with pastel-painted clapboard buildings, and a 120,000-gallon coral reef, complete with a fully rigged 60-foot sailboat.

Cabbage and sago palms, ferns and grasses – typical of the Florida Everglades – fill-out a landscape of reeds and ruhes, air and aquatic plants, cypress trees and mosses that delineate the rustic, swamp-like environment known throughout the world as Florida's "river of grass." Here, guests stroll along wooden boardwalks to view a natural habitat unlike any other in the world, where native Swamp Fern, Acrostichum danaefolium grows to heights of up to nine feet and sweetly scented day- and night-blooming water lilies perfume the air.

Water is a key element throughout Florida and thousands of natural springs nurture the wide variety of plant life. There are 161,000 gallons of water in the springs, pools, ponds and waterfalls scattered throughout the atriums.

Interwoven in the ground cover below and the leafy canopy above are 2,500 vines, ranging from neon-colored bougainvilleas and allamandas to big-leafed philodendron clambering up trees or sprawling alongside waterfalls and tumbling across rocks. A breathtaking wall of orchids nestled in elaborate stone grottoes contain hundreds epiphytic species. Ferns, orchids and bromeliads can be found throughout the rockscape.

McColgan said the resort is a horticulturist's dream. "We have excellent growing conditions and plenty of room for growing an unlimited variety of plant materials," he said. "We have the ability to keep creating gardens you can't see anywhere else!"

© SPA MANAGEMENT JOURNAL - APRIL 2005

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