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Gaylord Opryland Resort Gardens

Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, Tenneessee, is the largest hotel facility in the United States and the flagship property of Gaylord Hotels. The newly-renovated resort accommodates approximately 3,000 guest rooms and more than 700,000 square feet of meeting, convention and exhibit space. Nashville's Gaylord Opryland has an international reputation for its hospitality and amenities but is equally well known for its 9 acres of lavish indoor gardens. 50,000 tropical plants, blooms and romantic southern species, the horticultural displays at Gaylord Opryland are among the rarest in the world. Ultracarefully selected and lovingly maintained by a staff of 20 full-time interior horticulturists, the scene is a colorful, year-round delight placed inside this amazing resort. Each of the gardens is housed under one of the hotel's soaring atriums, creating a series of astounding horticultural wonderlands. A climate-control system keeps the temperature at 68-72 degrees Fahrenheit year round. There is also an air exchange system to ensure air in the atriums does not become stale. The system exchanges air four times in a 24-hour period. The Garden Conservatory features a collection of 10,000 tropical plants, representing more than 215 species. Towering palms and banana trees rise 60 feet above the atrium floor. In all, there are 37 different families of trees. There is a drip-irrigation system that allows many plants to be watered slowly over the course of several hours. The soil is a special mixture of pine, peat and cypress bark solelite developed specifically for the environment. Plant varieties range from an Alexandria palm tree towering more than 40 feet high to six-foot-tall ginger bushes and jasminum vines. It took staff 3 months to install the gardens of the Garden Conservatory Atrium. Sunlight levels are higher in the Cascades than in the Garden Conservatory, providing a viable environment for different varieties of plants. Even though it is an indoor environment, 370 trees and palms between 20- and 40-feet tall have been grown with thousands of smaller plants. To create the manifestation of the outdoors, black olive trees and west Indian mahoganies were chosen for their semblance to oaks. The designing for delta's gardens began two years before the Delta's opening in June 1996. Most of the plants originated in Florida. It took 32 tractor trailers to transport them in the protected environment of the Delta Atrium. The Delta is a garden of the South with 120 sabal palms, tall lady palms, camellias, banana trees and cycads. There are 1500 plants having 30 varieties of camellias in the Delta. Two 40-foot-tall Magnolia grandiflora (Southern magnolias) accent the front of the Delta Mansion.