Edison and Ford Winter Estates
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The Edison and Ford Winter Estates contain a historical museum and 17 acre (6.9 hectares) botanical garden on the adjacent sites of the winter homes of Thomas Alva Edison and Henry Ford beside the Caloosahatchee River in southwestern Florida. It is located at 2350 McGregor Boulevard, Fort Myers, Florida, USA. It is open to the public Monday through Saturday for a fee.
The present site dates from 1885, when Edison first visited Florida and purchased the property to build a vacation home. This structure, completed in 1886 and dubbed "Seminole Lodge", served as a winter retreat, laboratory, and work place until Edison's death in 1931. Edison’s good friend Henry Ford purchased the adjoining property in 1915 where he built "The Mangoes".
Edison's botanical garden contains more than 1000 varieties of plants from around the world, including African sausage trees and a 400-foot banyan tree given by Harvey Firestone in 1925. It was originally an experimental garden for industrial products. Later Mrs. Edison gave the garden an estheric turn with plantings of roses, orchids and bromeliads. At present the collections include: Acalypha hispida, Arenga pinnata, Artocarpus heterophllus, Billbergia sp., Blighia sapida, Bougainvillea glabra, Bougainvillea spectabilis, Calliandra haematocephala, Canage odorata, Cattleya hybrid, Cattleya sp., Chorisia speciosa, Citrus sp., Clerodendrum speciosissimum, Cordyline terminalis, cycad sp., Dendrobium, Dombeya sp., Epidendrum ciliare, Ficus auriculata, Ficus benghalensis, Ficus saussureana, Hibiscus schizopetalus, Holmskioldia sanguinea, Ibosa riparia, Ixora chinensis, Kilgelia pinnata, Leea coccinea, Malvaviscus arboreus, Musa sp., Parmentiera cereifera, Plumbago capensis, Solandra nitada, Spathoglottis plicata, Tabernaemontana corymbosa, Tecoma stans, Thunbergia erecta, and Tibouchina semidecandra.
See also
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