My favorite part of the garden by far was the cycad garden. Ganna Walska put this garden in later in her life. She sold a significant amount of her jewelry to be able to afford the cycads.

This particular cycad is a male of the species Encephalartos woodsii. This is an incredibly rare species and is actually evolutionarily extinct: there are no remaining females.

The last garden we visited was the tropical garden. They’ve done an incredible job creating and maintaining this microclimate. The temperature drops and the humidity rises just a few feet from the cycad garden.

You can see all of my posts about spring break here or just the Lotusland posts here.