Mounts Botanical Garden of Palm Beach County

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Mounts Botanical Garden of Palm Beach County To Start Construction This Fall on New Permanent Exhibit Windows on the Floating World Beautiful New Tropical Wetlands Garden will Enthrall and Educate Visitors on Critical Importance of Conserving & Protecting Fresh Water 

Rendering of the proposed Windows on the Floating World exhibit at Mounts Botanical Garden

(West Palm Beach, FL – July 13, 2016)  The Friends of Mounts Botanical Garden today announced that construction will start this fall on a new permanent exhibit, Windows on the Floating World, a series of see-through walkways and permanent and moveable aquatic plants that will allow visitors to feel and connect to the tropical wetlands around them.

“The immersive installation of Windows on the Floating World will reveal a full spectrum of the Wetland Garden at Mounts,” says Polly Reed, President of the Friends of Mounts Botanical Garden. “Boardwalks, benches and displays constructed over and around the wetlands will allow visitors to relax, reflect, and learn about ecology and our critical need to conserve and protect fresh water.”

“Demands for clean, fresh water continue to grow so there is an urgent need to educate the public, young and old, on the importance of practices that will better help us to protect this extraordinary natural resource,” she adds. “A wetlands is a land area that is saturated with water, either permanently or seasonally, and takes on the characteristics of a distinct ecosystem that serves as home to a wide range of plant and animal life”

Windows on the Floating World will feature transparent, open-gridded, 3-foot wide walkways on the surface of the wetlands to give visitors the feeling of walking on water. Within these walks are four windows that will be planted with aquatics and changed out with rotating and seasonal botanical exhibits growing from submerged containers. Additional highlights will include waterfalls flowing over natural stone, an area for wading birds, and a wall covered with Bromeliads, offering some of the best foliage colors in the plant kingdom.

“Most importantly, our Windows on the Floating World exhibit will be a place for demonstration and education,” says Rochelle Wolberg, Director of Programs and Interim Operations Manager at Mounts. “This environmental installation will provide an immersive experience for visitors, prompting them to more closely examine the nature surrounding them and its inner workings. For school children and their teachers, it will be an exceptional model to educate on water quality and usage, and the role each one of us can play in water conservation.”

Presented in cooperation with Palm Beach County’s Art in Public Places program and projected to cost about $500,000, Windows on the Floating World is generously funded in part by Margaret Blume, The Batchelor Foundation, Palm Beach County and the Friends of Mounts Botanical Garden.

About Mounts Botanical Garden of Palm Beach County:

With a mission to inspire the public, Mounts Botanical Garden offers gorgeous displays of tropical and sub-tropical plants, plus informative classes, workshops, and other fun-filled events. The Garden contains more than 2,000 species of plants, including Florida native plants, exotic and tropical fruit trees, herbs, palms, bromeliads and more.  Mounts Botanical Garden is a facility of the Palm Beach County Extension Service, which is in partnership with the University of Florida and the Friends of Mounts Botanical Garden.

Located at 531 North Military Trail in West Palm Beach, Mounts Botanical Garden of Palm Beach County is open Monday-Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. The suggested donation for entry to the Garden is $5 per person. For more information, please call 561.233.1757 or visit www.mounts.org.