The Hamelia patens is a favorite native plant for many here in Florida. It is a fairly fast grower, almost always in bloom, looks great and it is a HUGE attractor for hummingbirds. But... it's not very cold hardy at all. I live in 9A Florida and even though it is a Florida native plant, I would have to take measures in winter to keep it from dying down the roots. At the moment all I have is a cutting that I have managed to get to root. It isn't quite big enough to plant yet and I should be able to bring it in this winter. I imagine in zones where the ground actually freezes, it would die off completely, but I don't know for sure.

It's a beautiful plant. Kind of odd that they had probably 75-100 shrub sized plants in the ground. I would think it would be far more effective to have a hardy display garden with with specialty cultivars and have no more than a couple of each plant. I don't care for mass planting anyways, except in the Florida theme parks!

Excellent photography, thank you! I enjoy the Chihuly glass objects in the gardens very much. Superb.

Great Photos! Did you go to the mini Thailand simulator room thing ? Thats my favorite part!

Thailand doesn't exist anymore, It's India now. They change periodically, I think this is the third different country I've seen. They switch it every 2 years.

I havent been there in a couple of years, so it figures! I wanna see india! that seems very interesting too.

It doesn't change much Richard. In fact if you challenged me to tell you the differences I couldn't. It's largely the same, merely a gimmick. Still, as a season pass holder, that doesn't stop me from going 3-4 times per year. I love the seasonal displays.

Great pics! The palm house looks really nice to me and so does that cactus garden! Looks like the weather you had there yesterday is what we are getting in NYC here today. Today has been overcast and cool, high temperature of only 79.4F and a low of 67.3F the forecast said it was going to be 86F today, thats a pretty big inaccuracy!
-Alex