Longboat Key is in full bloom

Longboat Key is an artist’s palette with colorful blooms everywhere. Most striking is the royal poinciana tree just about to fully burst into striking brilliant red blooms. A tropical tree, it is considered one of the most beautiful in the world. In the Village, on the corner of Lois and Russell Streets, there is a tree in full bloom.

On the west side of Gulf of Mexico Drive on the north end of the Key there are eight or nine trees just about ready to burst into bloom.

Bushes of oleanders crowded with white and varying shades of pink blossoms can be seen almost everywhere on the Key. On the south end of the Key, a long row of them on Gulf of Mexico Drive border the Longboat Key Club Islandside golf course.

Equally popular is the fast-growing Mexican import, the bougainvillea. It is a climber or can be trimmed back to form sculpture bushes. At Longboat Arms, bougainvillea climbs an entrance rock wall. Although the magenta is a common bloom color, a light-orange bloom sometimes makes an appearance.

Hibiscus bushes are seen everywhere in Florida landscape, and the Key is no exception. On Harbourside Drive, there are several pink-and-white bushes dripping with blooms.

Check out the results of the town of Longboat Key’s recent Gulf of Mexico beautification program. The magnolia trees planted are thriving, producing large creamy-white and fragrant blooms.

Quiet bloomers are the water lilies at the Longboat Island Chapel’s pond at the church’s entrance. They pop up as tight buds and slowly unfurl into long-lasting blooms of soft yellow and blue.

A visit to Joan M. Durante Park offers more blooms for the artist’s palette in the rose garden. Lavender, delicate pink, deep red and golden yellow blooms are found there.

And keep looking. The park has a wide variety of flowering shrubs and plants blooming throughout the year.
Beauty clearly has no season on Longboat Key.