An American chestnut bur grows at The American Chestnut Foundation in Virginia. Their hybrid trees, the result of more than 30 years of backcross breeding of American and Chinese chestnut trees, aim to preserve the American species’ qualities while adding the Chinese species’ resistance to blight. Continue reading The American Chestnut Needs You
Fifteen minutes from the Atlantic, a Florida garden jungle has had two lives.
In 1929, two developers, Waldo E. Sexton and Arthur McKee, purchased 80 acres. Located along the Indian River in Vero Beach, they intended to plant a citrus grove.
The area included Southern live oaks (Quercus virginiana), cabbage palms (Sabal palmetto) and pines (Pinus). They thought it was s
o beautiful that they decided to create a garden instead.
Called the McKee Jungle Garden, it was a collaboration. Waldo E. Sexton designed and constructed the whimsical buildings. Arthur 
McKee collected the plants. They hired William Lyman Phillips, a renown Florida landscape architect, to design the ponds, waterfalls and vistas. Continue reading McKee, Vero Beach’s Jungle
