Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival

 

The campout scene is one of over 100 topiaries throughout the park, with more than 70 portraying Disney characters like Mickey, Minnie, and Cinderella. At least 25 different plants, including pink and red begonias, dusty miller, palm fiber, palm seeds, and lichen, are used to create a more colorful presentation than previously seen. Topiary Tinker Bell and her friends occupy Fawn’s Butterfly House at Pixie Hollow (formerly Minnie’s Magnificent Butterfly House), where 600 native butterflies of 10 different species flutter among plumbago, passion flower, honeysuckle, butterfly bush, milkweed, and canna lily.

Enhancing Epcot’s landscape are 30 million blooms and 500,000 plants. In the mix, visitors will see 44 flower towers of impatiens lining Innoventions Plaza, 120 floating mini-gardens of impatiens on the ponds along the walkway from Future World to World Showcase, and 700 container gardens of flowers, herbs, plants, and vegetables in clay pots, barrels, and urns. There are 60 species of trees, 47 types of palms, and 48 varieties of bedding plants. The Fragrance Garden at the France pavilion scents the air with more than 15 floral, herbal, and spice ingredients in aromas of lemon, Arabian jasmine, vanilla, mimosa, magnolia, and rose.

Do you think there are some very happy bees in central Florida?

Adequate pollination, a necessary step in the reproduction of flowering plants, produces quality plant specimens as seen at the Epcot festival. By spreading pollen from place to place, pollinators like bees, bats, and butterflies ensure the survival of flowers, trees, and other flora.

Former Ultimate Field Trip attendee and hobby beekeeper, J’Neena Swinney, generously shared her knowledge of honey bees with Magical Mouse Schoolhouse. (Thank you, J’Neena!) She and her family purchased their first hive about a year ago and have studied with a local association to learn all about bee-havior.

There is a certain hierarchy to honey bee hives. One queen, who could live up to five years, reigns over the entire hive. Her sole job is to lay 2,000 eggs each day. The only male bees in the group, the drones, exist primarily to mate with the queen. Described as lazy guys with a life span of about two months, drones do help regulate proper hive temperature but they do not gather pollen or produce honey. Those jobs belong to the female workers. Responsibilities of the females are divided into nursery duty or caring for larvae, foraging to bring in the pollen, and processing the pollen into wax and honey. Worker bees live approximately six weeks.

When bees gather pollen, they are collecting it for their own survival, but it benefits the ecology of entire populations. Every time a bee lands on a blossom, pollen sticks to tiny hairs on their legs and collects in pollen baskets. Some of that pollen gets left behind at each stop, thus allowing plant fertilization and reproduction to occur.

Magical Mouse Schoolhouse has been unable to discern whether Walt Disney World manages bee hives within their organization, contracts out with area beekeepers, or relies on local bees to visit nurseries naturally. Regardless of the method, kudos to the bees for bringing us such an exquisite display of flora and fauna!

So many options today!

1) Of course, if you are able, attend Epcot from March 3-May 16, 2010, and view this spectacular event firsthand.

2) Topiary pals Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto, and Goofy join efforts at the American Adventure pavilion to tend tomatoes, beans, peppers, and herbs in their first Community Garden. Visit a Community Garden in your area and find out how your family can participate. Often, families are assigned specific plots to plant and tend. Harvests are shared among contributors. If there’s not a Community Garden near you, begin one in your own neighborhood!

4) A 1956 Disney True-Life Adventures film called Secrets of Life covers, among other topics, blooming flowers, pollination, and life cycles of bees. Search your local library or video rental store to view a copy of this film. I’ve heard it has a thrilling scene of two queen bees battling to the death!

5) The festival runs 75 colorful days. 600 Walt Disney World horticulturists are needed to install the landscape and 100 Epcot horticulturists are needed to maintain festival displays. You can hear from some of them in the 198 hands-on gardening demonstrations and seminars that will be presented during the event. Click this to be directed to the official Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival flyer.

SCHOOL SUBJECT: Earth Science, Social Sciences, Art
SKILL LEVEL:  All