South Florida by Michael Cummins

We love living in South Florida. Even though I have circumnavigated the globe, lived overseas, explored a score or more countries and enjoyed three cross-country drives, I don't think I've ever found a more cosmopolitan place than South Florida. You can find most anything represented here, and I love gardening in Zone 10b. We can grow the darndest things! We also keep a butterfly garden. Did you know that South Florida Monarch butterflies don't migrate? We have them all year round down here!

"South Florida is the only part of the continental United States with a tropical climate." Wikipedia

 

Blog Posts

• 08 Jul '16   Lantern Festival at Morikami

 

The "Miami metropolitan area" includes Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. We live in downtown Fort Lauderdale, ourselves. The three cities flow together quite seamlessly, creating an urbanized area about 110 miles long (north to south) but only 20 miles wide, hemmed in by the Atlantic ocean on the east and the Florida Everglades on the West. Over six million people live here.

 

Greater Fort Lauderdale alone "has over 4,000 restaurants, 63 golf courses, 12 shopping malls, 16 museums, 132 nightclubs, 278 parkland campsites, and 100 marinas housing 45,000 resident yachts" Wikipedia

Places we enjoy visiting in South Florida

 

• Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens
  Japanese museum, theater, tea house, and 6 gardens that encompass 16 acres
  
  
• Mounts Botanical Garden
  Palm Beach County's oldest and largest public garden. 14 acres of tropical and subtropical plants from 6 continents
  
  
• Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
  83 acre botanic garden in metropolitan Miami with extensive collections of rare tropical plants. Named after Dr David Fairchild, one of the world's great plant explorers.
  
  
• The Kampong
  Dr David Fairchild's winter home, now a 9 acre botanical garden focused on tropical fruit trees. Fairchild introduced over 30,000 plant species and varietals into the U.S.
  
  
• Everglades National Park
  The largest subtropical wilderness in the United States
  
  
• Butterfly World
  The first Butterfly House in the United States, and the largest in the world.
  
  
• Vizcaya Museum & Gardens
  Originally the Deering estate, now a 70-room museum with 10 acres of Italian Renaissance formal gardens.