Bok Tower's Boktoberfest

Hills around Bok Tower filled with Orange Trees

It is funny how you can go from time on your hands to so many things to do that it you fall behind on everything.  Well retirement, even forced, can provide you with a rich life if you make it so.  I have had so many projects going on that I have not been able to keep up with the blog.  I am back visiting my friends in North Carolina for Christmas and this will allow me some time to relax from household duties, volunteer activities and provide a few fresh blogs of some wonderful things that I have seen or done around Tarpon Springs.  

A couple of months ago I was invited to attend a plant sale on Octoberfest at the Bok Tower in Lake Wales, Florida.  Bok Tower is a carillon tower located in the highest point in Florida in the middle of orange country.  The Gardens are named for their creators Edward W. Bok, editor of the Ladies Home Home Journal and his wife, Mary Curtis Bok, who founded the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.  Surrounding the tower is a famous garden designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. in 1921.  The gardens were dedicated in 1929 by President Calvin Coolidge.  The original plans called  for thousands of native plantings that included 1,000 live oaks and 10,000 azaleas as well as thousands more.  The gardens have been added to over time.  Today the gardens are lush and have the feel of a tropical jungle. There is an interpretive center, visitor center and horticultural facilities add to the fine gardens and the Tower.  With the extra excitement of the Boktoberfest and plant sale it was really quite a fun Saturday.

Bok Tower

Inside the tower is quite a grand Carillon

Rare blue ginger

Water Lily Victoria Regina

Philodendron leaves are 5 feet tall

one of the many ginger

Entry to Garden Center Complex

On top of wonderful gardens we got music and beer in the gardens!

As the gardens were free for the garden fest they had a plant sale to  make a little extra money. 

Yours truly and my friends from the Gro Group

One of my favorites volunteer duties is helping out the Gro Group.  A program for special need adults and and younger.  Located in Tarpon Springs and sponsored by the Pinellas County  School district these individuals are provided outdoor activities in the fresh air where they deal with plants and growing all manner of flora.  I have taken to bringing rare plants to help propagate unusual plants that might be sold to the public and help fund special outings or projects.