A blue dauben water lily stands above the surface of a fountain that drains in the koi ponds.
Angel wing begonia.
Bring quarters to buy fish chow and enjoy the koi feeding frenzy.
INSET BELOW: The red and yellow blooms of the Pride of Barbados tree glow in the late afternoon sun.
Photos by Jerry Lower/ The Coastal Star
By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley
For over eight decades, The Church of Bethesda-By-The-Sea in Palm Beach has provided a place to worship not only God but also nature. Hidden behind the church by a wall and towering palms, Cluett Garden is a well-designed sanctuary where you can relax, read a book or meditate.
According to Jethro Hurt III, the church’s archivist, the garden opened in 1931 on land purchased by Nellie Agnes Cluett. She wanted to create a garden in honor of her parents, Amanda Rockwell Fisher and George Bywater Cluett.
Today her original garden design remains intact, although some of the plantings have been replaced over the years. “We try to keep it natural and eco-friendly as well as colorful,” says grounds supervisor Keith Risley.
A metal gate bearing a cross welcomes visitors throughout the year.
You enter on the garden’s lower level under the red blooms of jatropha trees. Neatly trimmed viburnum and carissa boxwood hedges add a sense of order.
On this level you’ll find a Della Robbia-style relief of the madonna and child that Cluett dedicated to her mother. The small artwork is made grand with architectural details cut from coquina stone and podocarpus topiaries that stand guard on either side.
Here, too, you can see one end of the 12,000-gallon water feature that runs the length of the garden on two levels. Its gently flowing water is home to frogs, tadpoles, guppies and goldfish as well as plenty of koi.
The adult koi are restricted to a long, narrow waterway that runs through the garden’s upper level before falling into this pool below. Here, the smaller koi take refuge under red and green leaves of the water lilies and roots of the Egyptian papyrus.
Besides the yellow, red, black, white and orange koi, the water holds devilish black plecostomus that patrol the bottom of the fountain, sucking up algae and keeping the water clean.
“The kids are really attracted to the fish, as are the adults — who act like kids around them,” says Risley. For a quarter, you can get a handful of koi pellets from a dispenser. Throw them in the water and create a feeding frenzy.
Climb the grand stairs to reach the upper level of the garden where you can enjoy the adult koi as well as plenty of flowering plants.
There are purple ruellia, blue as well as white plumbago, pink hibiscus, pink and white trumpet trees, pink Panama roses, the variegated purples of the yesterday today and tomorrow and the vivid purple of the tubular flowers on a tibouchina.
Even the usual hedges are carefully pruned into five crosses on either side of the waterway. But the green chenille bush adds a sense of whimsy. Its variegated leaves are thin and twisted to give this plant a shaggy look that just may make you smile.
The variety in this garden attracts herons, wood ducks, egrets, songbirds, butterflies, squirrels, lizards and, of course, the church cat. You may even find an errant golf ball from the eighth tee of The Breakers’ ocean course, situated just next door. If the sun is overhead, you can enjoy the landscape from one of the two gazebos with their conical roofs and gardenias guarding their entries. Or find a spot on the coquina bench under the umbrella-like powder puff tree.
“There’s always a spot where you can find shade in this garden,” Risley says.
Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley is a certified master gardener who can be reached at debhartz@att.net when she’s not in her garden.
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