Photo courtesy Walt Disney World Resort
At a time when some of the world's most famous botanical gardens are cutting back on staffing and exhibits, one enormous public landscape is celebrating spring with the cultivation of millions of blooms and hundreds of living sculptures: Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.
On a regular family visit to Disney World years ago, I was struck by the extent of the plantings that fill the 47-square-mile entertainment complex. In 2003, while on another family visit, I had the privilege of being shown around some of the 4,000 acres the resort landscapes.
As I wrote for National Geographic News after that visit (Inside Disney World's Landscaping Army), Disney's 750 horticultural professionals plant three million bedding plants annually and tend 175,000 trees and more than four million shrubs. There were 13,000 rose bushes alone. There were also 2,000 acres (800 hectares) of turf which keep an army of gardeners in full-time employment.
When I received details a few weeks ago about Walt Disney World's annual Flower and Garden Festival, I thought back to that visit and I contrasted it with the depressing news we have received of cutbacks at the New York Botanical Garden and other public gardens during the recession.
Photo courtesy Walt Disney World Resort
Most visitors to Disney World probably don't particularly notice the enormous landscaping effort between all the amusements. For me the gardens will always be one of the most important reasons to visit the place.
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