Began in 1935 as a hobby for inventor-industrialist A. Bishop Chance, today the garden presents a dazzling seasonal show of mixed tulips followed by summer perennials and annuals. Both the home and garden are on the National Register of Historic Places. A fine Georgian mansion was built on top of a hill as the crown to the exceptional estate garden that was planted on the hillsides below. Boxwood, dogwood trees, orchids, trillium and herbs fill the garden with lush beauty and abundance. Separate Cloud Forest and Orchid Greenhouses are beautiful to visit any time of the year.
Spring is a showstopper with azaleas, dogwoods and hundreds of bulbs in bloom.
Said by many to be the grandest private residence ever built in America, George Washington Vanderbilts's masterpiece welcomes thousands of visitors a year. A 250-room French chateau, covering four acres, was built in 1895 and the gardens were completed several years later. Frederick Law Olmsted, best known for his designs of New York's Central Park and Boston's Back Bay Fens, was hired to create the parkland gardens that surround the home. Today the 8,000-acre gardens are under the supervision and ownership of Vanderbilt's grandsons and are open to the public all year. Because of his fragile health doctors recommended a warmer climate, and so in 1914 Deering purchased 180 acres in Biscayne Bay and set to work creating a magnificent tropical paradise with an Italian flair.