{"id":4771,"date":"2014-03-10T02:42:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-10T06:42:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-08-13T17:53:49","modified_gmt":"2020-08-13T21:53:49","slug":"vizcaya-palace-connections-and","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardern.co.za\/2014\/03\/vizcaya-palace-connections-and\/","title":{"rendered":"Vizcaya Palace: Connections and Crossroads"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A limestone urn with a brilliant, giant bromeliad, Aechema blanchetiana<\/i>, of which there are many named varieties, each grown for it ability to develop a strong, coral color in the bright, tropical sunshine.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
Built between 1914 and 1917, Vizcaya Palace was the home of James Deering, an American industrialist who founded the tractor company today known as International Harvester, but who also created an Italian Renaissance villa worthy of any Tuscan hillside or Venetian sea side. All this, on the edge of Biscayne Bay.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
At first glance, one may think that this is a formal boxwood garden, but every plant here is a sub tropical plant.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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\nConstructed as a winter residence for Mr. James Deering, who’s father was the founder of what became the International Harvester Tractor company, the estate is now one of the handful of classic grand residences built in the early 20th Century. Those were the days of first generation wealth, resulting in many Gilded Age leisure ‘homes’,- you know, those ‘cottages’ of Newport, Rhode Island, and then of course, Biltmore, the Vanderbuilt’s winter home in Ashville, North Carolina. What I connected with most while touring the home and gardens, as well as his impressive art collection, what that Mr. Deering wasn’t just a man with a fortune building a home to show off with, he was one of the few who intimately was involved with every detail of this project, and not unlike his contemporary Isabella Stewart Gardner, he created a treasure that will live on for many lifetimes, for many people to enjoy.<\/div>\n