While in central Florida for my Disney Birthday Week, I visited beautiful Bok Tower Gardens. I have to say, the previous night’s Highway in the Sky Dine Around and this visit to Bok Tower Gardens were the high points of my week–I really loved it here! I think the key to my love was getting here early but I think it is rewarding no matter how much time you have to spend.
History of Bok Tower Gardens
Bok Tower Gardens is the creation of Edward William Bok, a Dutch immigrant whose main claim to riches is being the extremely successful senior editor of the Ladies Home Journal. (Somehow, I don’t feel like that would make anyone rich today…)
Bok opened the gardens to the public in 1929 on his favorite hill near his summer home in Lake Wales. He commissioned Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. to landscape, son of the man who created Central Park in NYC, and who himself worked on the Biltmore Estate, the White House Grounds, the National Mall, and several national parks. The same sculptor who created the Atlas figure in front of Rockefeller Center in NYC carved the pink marble tower with Florida birds such as heron and eagles.
The tower houses a 60-bell carillon played via an organ-like console on the tower’s upper floors. A golden door serves as the entrance to the tower, though it is not open to the public.
Layout of Bok Tower Gardens
You pay for your ticket near the entrance to Bok Tower Gardens off US-17. There’s an entrance gate a little way in on Tower Blvd, then a long drive through orange orchards to the parking lot.
Visitor Center
At the parking lot is a Visitor Center with a staffed help desk and a small theater showing a looping 8-minute film about the gardens. A large room displays information on Edward Bok, the gardens, and the carillon tower. I liked the information about the tower the most–a place where you could “stand” inside the shape of the largest bell and a spot to play a note on a carillon console (look for the peg/key that’s out of line with the others.) Boards on the walls near the bathrooms have information on other carillons around the world.
Across from the Visitor Center is a gift shop with a plant shop out back, more bathrooms, and a cafe. Behind the buildings, don’t forget to wander off the sidewalk to the left to some smaller fountain displays and a massive century plant.
The Oval
Almost straight back from the Visitor Center is an oval from which all points of the park can be reached. Clockwise from your entrance, paths heading more or less directly to the Tower, Pinewood Estate, Wild Garden, Kitchen Garden, and new Outdoor Kitchen.
Olmsted Gardens
The open lawns of the Olmsted-landscaped gardens take up the left side of the park. This is the place for stately live oaks, curated flower beds, azaleas, camellias, palms, ferns, and tropical undergrowth. Several paths lead you up the hill to a long reflecting pool at the base of Bok Tower, specially designed to reflect its full height.
Bok Tower
Surrounding Bok Tower itself is a moat filled with fish (which you can feed for a quarter.) The golden door faces the reflecting pond, though sadly, you can’t see it up close. Two bridges with locked ornate iron gates bar entrance to the tower itself, except by the carillonneurs who play the bells. Edward Bok himself is buried at the base of the tower in front.
Around the back is my favorite part of the gardens, the top of the hill and an overlook to Lake Wales beyond. A vast lawn and benches are set up for optimal listening to the bells. A small seating area near the Peace Lantern is set up so you can watch a live feed of the expert carillonneurs while they play.
You can walk to Bok Tower from the Oval, or catch a golf-cart shuttle behind the Visitor Center. Alternately, you can walk to the Tower from the side of the parking lot, which is a more direct path.
Pinewood Estate
If you choose to add Pinewood Estate to your ticket, you can visit the summer home of Charles Austin Buck (NOT Bok), a magnificent example of 1930’s Mediterranean architecture. Volunteer docents in each room will guide your journey and answer any questions you may have. I found them each to be very knowledgeable and it definitely enriched my visit, rather than just a walk-through with a pamphlet (which you also get.) They love to point out all the secret passages and hidden bathrooms…
A bonus is that in February and March, local florists decorate each room with fresh flower arrangements. (The docents, mostly older ladies, were all super thrilled about them!)
Don’t fail to walk down the wide back lawn to the pond at the bottom. There’s a path behind it and in the hot summer months, it’s several degrees cooler.
Wild Garden
Oh, I loved the Wild Garden! This large area is planted with more Florida-centric plants, including an Endangered Species Garden. A paved sidewalk circles the area but the joy is in the multitude of smaller paths branching off into the undergrowth. It’s as if you’ve found secret path and following it may land you in the middle of a grove of bamboo where you’ll find a little sculpture. And when you pop out of that one, you find another one just down the way. It’s a great place to get lost in, in the best possible way!
The Wild Garden has a pretty boardwalk over a man-made marsh used to filter water going into the nearby pond. At the pond, there’s a little viewing room set up to watch the wildlife without them seeing you. Though I’m not sure how well it works–a couple of wood ducks took off as soon as I walked in, so they must have seen me after all. Sneak around the corner carefully and you might have better luck than me.
Kitchen Garden & Outdoor Kitchen
To the right of the Visitor Center is the newer Kitchen Garden, featuring raised beds with all sorts of vegetables and other edible plants. Behind this is a new Outdoor Kitchen where during paid events, chefs use ingredients from the Kitchen Garden. When I was there, a $7 presentation on “Teas for Stress Relief” was featured at 1 pm.
Hammock Hollow Children’s Garden
Back behind the Outdoor Kitchen is Bok Tower Garden’s newest addition, Hammock Hollow Children’s Garden. This area is FUN! Down in a little ravine, there are, #1, actual HAMMOCKS to relax in, and #2, a super fun wet area for kids to run through. It’s set up like a miniature canyon and if you run between the rocks, the motion will activate water jets. It both lets kids run around to get some energy out while cooling them down in the hot Florida sun.
In the shady area behind the water jets are places to climb on webs, dig in the sand, pump water, make a fairy garden, and even put on a play complete with a stage, costumes, and props.
Nature Trails
Starting from the parking lot opposite from the Visitor’s Center and looping around to the Hammock Hollow area is the Pine Ridge Trail. Make sure to take along a brochure from the Visitor Center to read at the numbered points along the way. It’s mostly an open, flat, sandy path through scrubby pine trees and overlooking the orange groves. If you’re lucky, you might see a wild turkey or a tortoise. A longer Preserve Trail is a 1.5-mile one-way trail from the parking lot to the entrance.
The 3/4-mile Pine Ridge trail only takes about 20-30 minutes to walk, and the trailhead at the parking lot has picnic tables and a playground for those who want to bring their own food for the day.
Events
Every day, there are live carillon concerts at 1 & 3 pm. There are guided tours in the hours before the concerts, starting at the Visitor Center at noon and 2:00. A guide will lead you through the gardens, stopping frequently to point out what’s in bloom. You end the tour at the base of the Tower in time for one of the two concerts.
Make sure to check out the events calendar before your visit. There is everything from yoga and Tibetan singing bowl demonstrations to composting and rain barrel seminars. When I visited in mid-March, it was during the International Carillon Festival, which meant there were extra free bell tower concerts in the evenings (which I didn’t get to experience.)
Suggested Touring
Best Tip: Get There Early!
I really love the way I toured the Gardens, which was a little by accident. The Visitor Center and Cafe don’t open until 9 am which is when most guests start arriving. But I arrived when the gardens opened at 8 am. I was the first one in the parking lot besides the employees and headed first to the Wild Garden to spy wildlife in the pond. That didn’t work out super well (see above) but exploring the paths of the Wild Garden in the cool of the morning and pretty much having it all to myself was really nice. I felt like I could run around and explore like a little kid!
I ate a snack in the Cafe a little before 9:00 and when the visitor center opened, I watched the film and toured the displays.
Then I walked up to Bok Tower and got a good look at it without hardly any other people around. While I enjoyed the live concerts later, I loved the recorded music playing the rest of the day. It seemed so calming and ethereal and you could hear it throughout the rest of the park. (I also heard someone practicing The Rainbow Connection while I was eating breakfast, which was fun. I could tell it was live when they stopped and restarted certain sections.)
Walking to the tower on the southern slope and walking back on the northern side gave me pretty good coverage of the formal gardens. Next, I visited Pinewood Estate, hitting it right when it opened at 10 am. Again, I had the house, and the docents’ attention, totally to myself.
Afternoon
I made my way back to the Cafe around 11:30 for lunch before joining the Spring Blooms tour at noon. The tour lasted until the carillon concert at 1:00, which itself lasted about 30-40 minutes.
After that, I walked the Pine Ridge Trail around to Hammock Hollow and the Kitchen Garden. It was about 2:30 by that point, so I took a book and read at the base of the tower until the 3:00 concert. The two concerts were totally different, but I confess the second didn’t hold as much magic for me as the first. I could have left at 2:30 and been totally happy with my visit.
This way, I fully experienced everything in Bok Tower Gardens, I felt I really got my money’s worth and was still done by 3:30.
Tickets
If you want to experience Bok Tower Gardens for yourself, admissionis $15 for adults and $21 including Pinewood Estate. Kids 5-12 are $10 (Pinewood included) and dogs cost $5. Parking is included.
Discounts
As another incentive to arrive early, receive 50% off your admission when you arrive before 9 am–but that only works on Saturdays. Active military (plus four friends or family) receive admission half off year-round. Retired military are regularly full price but receive FREE admission on Veteran’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Armed Forces Day.
I really enjoyed my day at Bok Tower Gardens! I would recommend it to anyone who loves nature, horticulture, music, history, or architecture. It may not be super exciting like nearby Disney or Universal but it’s a real gem of quiet beauty.
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