Shopping Trip to Rockledge Gardens

By Linda Adams
Early in May I encouraged my friends, Linda and Billy Butterfield, FCLC, and Katy Moss Warner to meet me in Cocoa Beach on a Friday evening for the Brevard Fiesta. My sister, Mary was competing in a salsa competition (the food, not the dance) and they agreed to come over and add their support.
We made it an overnight trip and on Saturday morning headed to one of the best independent garden centers in Florida – Rockledge Gardens, owned by FNGLA members Theresa and Kevin Riley, FCHP. Theresa and Kevin are both active in FNGLA. Theresa is a member of the TPIE Planning Committee and Kevin serves on the FNGLA Short Course Committee.
Although it was a very warm day, the parking lot at Rockledge Gardens was full. There were plenty of customers picking out colorful plants, trees, mulch, and more at this inviting garden center. Rockledge Gardens is 12 beautiful acres of tropical and hardy trees, shrubs, annuals and perennials; a sprawling greenhouse full of house and patio plants, orchids, and bromeliads; a huge selection of garden gifts, accessories, tools, and supplies and very friendly helpful staff in every area of the garden center.

There are brightly painted buildings and facades which are reminiscent of the beachside look of Key West. Scattered throughout the garden center are miniature gardens which provide ideas and inspiration on ways to use the specific plants in a home landscape. My favorite was a full-size, brightly painted door used as a prop in one of the mini-garden.
I’ve had the good fortune to work with Kevin Riley on several FNGLA projects and consider him one of the truly gifted McGyvers in the industry. He is very clever and creative, using basic materials to create cool settings throughout the garden center.

I was on a hunt for a yellow tabebuia tree for my home landscape. As it happens, Rockledge Gardens has a tabebuia expert on staff, Bernie Peterson, FCHP. Bernie is involved with producing hybrid tabebuia varieties and was able to show us some of the interesting results. From the conversation, I learned Tabebuia umbellata is the variety which will do best where I live and provides the bright yellow flowers I love. Unfortunately, when the trees were in flower a few weeks prior, they were hot sellers and only 3 gallon sized trees remained, so I left Rockledge Gardens without a tabebuia tree.

But I did find a gorgeous nun’s orchid in bloom to take as a gift to a friend. The Butterfields and Katy loaded up their wagons with a variety of plants for container gardens and patio plantings. I think Billy also found some fruit trees to try. Even my sister found a blue delphinium she couldn’t resist, even though its season was near its end.

We had a great time taking in the beauty of Rockledge Gardens. I felt especially fortunate to not only have the knowledgeable Rockledge Gardens staff to provide plant info, but also 2 of the industry’s best horticulturists (Billy and Katy) to provide insight and guidance about all the plants and trees we were seeing. We even had a few customers come over and ask Billy and Katy’s advice about certain plants!

Special thanks to Kevin and Theresa for taking time to give us a tour, especially the Saturday before Mother’s Day – one of the busiest days of the season!

If you are near Rockledge, you should definitely take the time to visit Rockledge
Gardens. It makes you feel proud to be in the nursery and landscape industry! Rockledge Gardens will be one of the stops on the Garden Centers of America (GCA) tour at the end of June. Complete details at http://www.gardencentersofamerica.org/.

By the way, my sister did win the salsa competition – Voted the People’s Favorite for 2nd consecutive year. Ole!