PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — The Mounts Botanical Garden near West Palm Beach is a botanist dream and a tree lover's delight.
Visitors to the garden will see a palette of colors among the subtropical plants.
It's a place of grand sights and subtle fragrances — a veritable paradise amid the hustle and bustle of South Florida.
The Mounts Botanical Garden sits on 20 acres of what once was a cow pasture.
Among the trees that visitors can see is a Mamey apple native to South America — the biggest of its species in all of Florida.
WPTV anchor Michael Williams received a tour of the garden from horticulturist Palmer Crippen.
Crippen visited the garden while growing up in the community.
"Did the botanical garden influence your decision to do this for your career?" Williams asked him.
"Absolutely," Crippen replied.
There are 25 display gardens with 7,000 species of plants that thrive in South Florida's subtropical climate.
Plants that include the angel trumpet.
"It is a very unique, very delicate tree," Crippen said. "The bees love it."
During your visit, you can take a stroll in the Florida wetland area of the garden while also marveling at nature's healing power.
Crippen showed Williams the medicinal herbal area on site.
"Some notable ones are aloe vera over there used for healing and sunburns," Crippen showed Williams.
Time travel with the Cyad family, which has been on the planet for millions of years.
"It has sharp little teeth on it," Crippen said. "They have quite a defense on them (probably) against dinosaurs. That is just how old they are."
Visitors can also delight in exotic aromas during a stop at the ylang-ylang tree, a tropical tree native to Southeast Asia.
"They are incredibly fragrant if you want to sniff that," Crippen said. "What's really interesting about this tree is this was actually the founding fragrance solution for Chanel No. 5."
The garden was started by a transplant from Oklahoma named Marvin "Red" Mounts who became Palm Beach County's first agricultural extension agent in the 1920s. He had a fertile mind, and the garden was his laboratory.
"He planted different fruit trees and vegetable crops and edible plants for the people of that time, which was about the 1950s, to help with nutritional deficiencies," Crippen explained.
Decades later, the work goes on at the Mounts Botanical Garden. Educators help teach landscaping, and fruit trees that you can adopt.
It operates through a joint venture between the Palm Beach County Agricultural Extension Office and Friends of the Mounts Botanical Garden.
"We tend to forget how much we use in everyday life comes in one form or fashion from nature," Williams said to Crippen.
"Absolutely, it's the inspiration for everything," Crippen said.
It's a beautiful testament to the timeless and vital bond between humans and nature.
