Mounts to break ground on wetland garden walkways
A groundbreaking for a new tropical wetland garden at the Mounts Botanical Garden in West Palm Beach is scheduled for 3 p.m. Wednesday.
The Friends of Mounts Botanical Garden announced the event Wednesday and said the “Windows on the Floating World Tropical Wetland Garden” will feature a series of see-through walkways as well as permanent and changing aquatic plant displays. The garden scheduled to open next year is designed to allow visitors to feel and connect to the tropical wetlands around them .
“The immersive installation of Windows on the Floating World will reveal a full spec trum of the Tropical Wetland Garden at Mounts,” said Ron Rice, director of Palm Beach County Cooperative Extension. “Boardwalks, benches and displays constructed over and around the wetlands will allow visitors to relax, reflect, and learn about ecology and our critical need to conserve and protect fresh water.”
Expected to open in Spring 2017 and designed by artists Mags Harries and Lajos Héder, in collaboration with Wantman Group’s landscape designers, Windows on the Floating World will feature transparent, 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” that will be planted with aquatics and changed out with rotating and seasonal botanical exhibits growing from sub- merged containers. Additional highlights will 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.
“Most importantly, our Windows on the Floating World Trop- ical Wetland Garden will be a place for demonstration and education,” said Rochelle Wolberg, who is interim manager of operations and programs at Mounts. “This environmental installation will provide an immersive experience.”
The creation of Windows on the Floating World is being led by Palm Beach County’s Art in Public Places program, whose mission is to provide art that complements public buildings, parks and plazas; create a sense of place; enhance community identit y; improve design of public infrastructure; and contribute to the missions of the county departments where projects are sited.
This new garden at Mounts is funded in part by Margaret Blume, The Batchelor Foundation, Palm Beach County and the Friends of Mounts Botanical Garden.