Saturday, April 4, 2015

Crete Botanical Park

Crete boasts a Botanical Garden, perched at the foot of White Mountain, overlooking a river and a broad valley, this 50 acre garden is a treasure and we were there before everything was even in bloom. I can only imagine what its like in the middle of the summer!
Bird of Paradise
Check out the bee
The people here are so generous the park wasnt even open yet  - winter storms had left so much of it requiring clean up. The owners, however, let us, and numerous other tourists, roam the tranquil paths, finding tiny delightful flowers pushing their way through the strewn leaves. We honestly found plants wed never seen before and a great chance to take undisturbed pictures, or just sit and enjoy the peace.

Being located in a Mediterranean climate, the number of plants that can survive in the climate is amazing The path wound down through various regions with a fruit trees garden, herbs medical and culinary with information, tropical garden, vineyards, and a variety of cherry trees!



Picturesque peacock

At the bottom of the hill, we found a small animal refuge with numerous birds roaming around a small pond. The turkey was interested in us, following us and preening his feathers. I think he was angling for attention after all, he was competing with the peacocks. Across the meadow you could see a huge number of bee boxes we had noted many of them placed along the path - with the bees merrily pollinating.  Jeff got a couple of spectacular shots of the bees in action - check out his Facebook.
There was one more unique plant we found...this one in a restaurant. While it has the looks of a cactus, further searching online has identified it as "Frilled Fan" and a member of a completely different family of plants. Had never seen anything like it.







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