Garden Detective

Photos from the EPCOT Flower & Garden Show

My entire family has abandoned me for sunnier climes. My sister and her family relocated to Florida in 1990, and my parents followed a few years later. Though John probably would jump at the opportunity to escape the rat race, there are too many things about New York that I couldn’t possibly leave behind. So every year, usually in February, we pile into the mini van and drive the 20 or so grueling hours through eight states – with an obligatory stop at a Cracker Barrel restaurant – to the Sunshine State.

This year, I timed the annual pilgrimage to coincide with the 14th Annual EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival, a Disney treat that has eluded me in the past because it doesn’t usually coincide with school vacations. Because of the extraordinary number of guests that visit EPCOT solely for the festival, it has been extended to 60 days with the extension tacked on to the beginning of the event and just in time to overlap with our region’s Spring Break.

I hooked up with Eric Darden, the Festival’s horticultural manager, and Heather Wills-Browne, horticultural manager of Walt Disney World Nurseries, Tuesday afternoon for a preview tour of some pretty intense horticulture. I think it’s obvious to any visitor to any WDW theme park, property or event, that the company mantra is probably something like, “Quality or Bust.” Everything from the most luxurious resort down to the humblest snack stand is first rate. The attention to detail is breathtaking, and the EPCOT festival is no exception.

Nearly a full year in the planning, creative renderings for the displays were done last June and then structural engineers set to work creating the topiaries, which weigh between 1,000 and 1,500 pounds apiece. Fabrication happened in September or October, and just last night some 30 workers – electricians, irrigation specialists, gardeners, crane operators and others – set the festival’s focal point in place just inside the EPCOT entry gate.

Beginning on April 5 and until the festival ends on June 3, visitors to EPCOT will be greeted by the realistic pirate ship with multi-hued Peter Pan, Captain Hook and Tinker Bell topiaries on board. And the largest character topiary this year is Pirate Goofy, standing 14 feet tall.

Because the event has begun earlier than usual this year, Disney gardeners have had the opportunity – and the necessity – to experiment with cooler season plants. The vibrant violas, however, won’t be long lived; they will have to be replaced by warmer season plants in two or three weeks.

There are other ‘firsts’ to behold at the festival this year, too. Temporary playgrounds throughout the park are among the first-ever installations anywhere of the revolutionary EVOS play systems. While most jungle gyms are structured, EVOS encourages creative play. You’ll likely be seeing them pop up in school playgrounds over the next few years.
Minnie’s Magnificent Butterfly Garden is enclosed in a revolutionary “Aluminette” fabric. The screening, invented in Israel, allows only the sun’s “good” rays to penetrate, while filtering out harmful ones. The 500 butterflies in the house would be lethargic from the heat and wouldn’t flutter about without it. My guess is that with temperatures being unseasonably warm, even for Florida, visitors wouldn't do much fluttering about without it, either. Immediately upon entering the screen room, I noticed a welcome temperature drop of about ten degrees.

“This is the best time of year to bring kids to EPCOT,” Darden said. “If your kids are four to five years old, they need a place to run around. The play areas are nice and shady.” While kids might need to run around, parents, to be sure, will need to rest. I noticed each play area has mercy benches for mom and dad.

There are other things for mom and dad at the festival, too. The Flower Power concert series will feature thrice-daily shows by stars from the 60s and 70s such as Paul Revere and the Raiders, Herman’s Hermits, Davy Jones, The S.O.S. Band, The Guess Who and Tony Orlando. On Mother’s Day, each mom will receive a flower. And the Art of Outdoor Living Garden offers lots of inspiration for creating an upscale outdoor living area. Every Weekend, visitors will have the opportunity to learn from the pros by attending the Great American Gardeners Series. Paul James of HGTV’s “Gardening by the Yard” will appear April 5-8. Other garden personalities to appear include Patricia Lanza, author of “Lasagna Gardening,” TV and radio personality Gary Alan and renowned wilderness photographer Clyde Butcher. My invitation to appear must have gotten lost in the mail. I’ll be sure to update Disney with my proper mailing address for future events, as I’m sure they’re disappointed.

Throughout the festival (and no doubt in my place) Disney experts will be on hand to share tips and secrets that you can use in your own garden.

I give a lot of credit to the gardeners, who not only worked hard but worked smart, using creative touches throughout the displays like palm fiber for Beauty and her Beast’s hair, dried statice to decorate Pirate Mickey’s black flag, and an air plant called tillandsia to cover Tinker Bell’s wings. Other plant materials used to create and define features of the topiaries include pink and red begonias, dusty miller, palm seeds, ficus and lichen.

After touring the park, which is dressed up with 300,000 bedding plants, 70 topiaries (including the revolving royal couple Cinderella and Prince Charming,) and 30 MILLION blooms in total, I had to wonder where it all would go after all the hoopla has faded. Secretly conspiring to do some dumpster diving, I inquired about the fate of those gorgeous plants at the end of the festival. “They all get composted,” Wills-Browne told me with a straight face. Oh well, most of them wouldn’t grow well on Long Island anyway.