The Friends of the Mounts Botanical Garden hosted the official dedication of Windows on the Floating World: Blume Tropical Wetland Garden on Tuesday, June 13. The stunning new garden features a series of walkways and permanent and changing aquatic plant displays that allow visitors to feel and connect to the tropical wetlands around them.
More than 70 local officials, members of the Mounts board of directors, cultural dignitaries, garden patrons, and key construction and design personnel cheered as the new waterfall started to flow and flourish the surrounding wetland.
Also on hand were representatives from the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties, which is funding the garden’s new Ambassadors of the Wetlands education initiative to promote wetland stewardship and water conservation.
“The immersive installation of Windows on the Floating World reveals the full spectrum of the Blume Tropical Wetland Garden at Mounts,” said Ron Rice, director of the Palm Beach County Cooperative Extension. “The new, environmentally friendly boardwalks, benches and displays allow visitors to relax, reflect and learn about ecology and our critical need to conserve and protect fresh water.”
Named after Mounts supporter Margaret Blume, the garden was designed by artists Mags Harries and Lajos Héder, in collaboration with WGI’s landscape architecture division.
Windows on the Floating World features open-gridded, 4-foot-wide walkways on the surface of the wetlands to give visitors the feeling of walking on water. Within these walks are four “windows” planted with aquatics and changed out with rotating and seasonal botanical exhibits growing from submerged containers. Additional highlights include waterfalls flowing over natural stone, an area for wading birds, and a wall covered with bromeliads, offering some of the best foliage colors in the plant kingdom.
The creation of Windows on the Floating World was led by Palm Beach County’s Art in Public Places program.
This new garden at Mounts was funded in part by Margaret Blume, the Batchelor Foundation, Hedrick Brothers Construction, Palm Beach County, Heartsong Waterscapes, A-Cut-Above, WGI, Dr. & Mrs. Pedro Diaz and the Friends of the Mounts Botanical Garden.
For more information about Mounts, call (561) 233-1757 or visit www.mounts.org.
