Claire and historic landscape specialist Jerry Millen are re-creating five centuries of green Florida history. Visitors can see the types of plants grown here in 16th and 17th century Spanish courtyard gardens, 18th century British plantations, 19th century U.S. territorial homesteads and early 20th century Victorian-style yards. Claire, standing inside the 1840 Canova House, one of 10 buildings that make up the village. The complex is in the oldest historic area of St. Augustine, which is known as the Old City. Village programs emphasize how plants factored into daily life.
Visitors learn about the use of Seville, or sour, oranges during a program on colonial cooking.
They taste the fruity drink made from the roselle, the Florida cranberry. They can buy pickled okra and datil pepper sauce at the 1899 Star General Store. And they can follow Millen on guided walks through the evolving landscaping at the village, which has only been open to the public for three months. The goal is to be horticulturally authentic, Millen said. What has emerged from village research is a portrait of horticultural diversity, traced to the people of varied heritage who settled in the city over the centuries.