St. Johns Botanical Garden and Nature Preserve

Story and photos by
Kathleen Walls

As a long-time Florida resident, I am familiar with palm trees but until I visited St. Johns Botanical Garden and Nature Preserve (SJBGNP), I had no idea there were so many variants. Dr. John Rossi, founder and resident biologist led our small group on a tour of the garden. The garden is St. Johns County’s newest attraction. It focuses on an important, but often neglected side of the county, the natural side.

The location of the garden midway between the St. Johns River, and the Atlantic Ocean create a unique microenvironment. One factor Dr. Rossi mentioned was interesting. With north Florida’s weird weather changes, we can go from mid-twenties one day, to seventies and eighties the next day. He pointed out that the garden uses canopies to protect plants. Many of the plants here are tropical so clustering them close together with hardier tropicals under a huge oak canopy affords them some protection from wind and frost. These canopy layers are of different heights, like tall oaks covering shorter palms, which in turn protect the smaller plants and scrubs like Loas Lady Palms, one of the smallest palm variants I have ever seen. While many other gardens have lost plants due to frost, this garden has managed to protect the less cold tolerant plants and lost fewer.

One interesting fact he told us was that most of our local coconut palms originated from a shipwreck in the 1800s of a ship on its way from Cuba to Spain. It’s interesting to think Florida’s favorite palm tree is really an invasive plant although certainly not an unwelcome one.

Dr. Rossi showed us dozens of other palms: wedding palm, paradise palm, king palm, royal palm, pigmy date palm, island palm, candy cane palm, Indian date palm, windowpane palm, and many more. They range from local to Madagascar, Caledonia, Southeast Asia, and other places.

Of course, there is so much more than palms here. You enter through a gift shop where you can find many exotic plants as well as native plants for sale. Some exotics you might not want to spread are still beautiful if kept in pots.

There is a Cactus Carral where you find a variety of cacti, yuccas, and bromeliads. Some of the cacti are almost sculpture-like. Butterfly attracting plants are all over in the garden. Throughout the garden there are various trails including Silver Hill, Fan Palms of the World, African, Asian, and Australian Palms, Cuban Palms, Tropical Trail and more.

Besides being a garden, it is a nature preserve. There is a lake and a wooded natural area with a small stream running through it. When I first viewed the lake, I thought I spotted an alligator but was disappointed to find it was a fake one. Hopefully, one day the lake may be home to some of Florida’s largest reptiles.

A fox squirrel seen nearby

However, Dr. Rossi assured us there are lots of wildlife in the preserve. If you come early in the day rather than midday when I visited, you may see rabbits, skunks, raccoons, opossums, otters, foxes, bobcats, coyotes, feral hogs, gray squirrels, fox squirrels, and more. Fox squirrels are adorable. I didn’t see any that day but have seen a few in the past nearby.

You may see a snake. There are many non-venomous ones that help preserve the normal environment and are an important part of nature. The few venomous ones, coral snakes, pygmy rattlesnakes, cottonmouths, and an occasional copperhead, will flee from you faster than you will from them. Just don’t approach or grab any and you will be fine.

Birders will love visiting here also as they may find cardinals, blue jays, wrens, phoebes, kingfishers, tufted titmice, chickadees, flycatchers, catbirds, egrets, herons, ducks, owls, and hawks. If you look especially around the brightly colored flowers, you may spot a hummingbird. Occasionally, there may be a bald eagle or osprey passing through.

Nature rules here!