CAROLYN'S SHADE GARDENS

Just outside Sarasota, Florida, is The Ringling, a very unique cluster of museums set in a lovely 20-acre garden along the shore of Sarasota Bay.  The grounds and one of the museums were the home of John (1866 to 1936) and Mable (1875 to 1929) Ringling.  John Ringling is most famous as the owner, along with his four brothers, of Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey^® Circus, “The Greatest Show on Earth”.  However, he had many other business interests and accumulated almost $200 million in the 1920s.

Nursery News:  Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a retail nursery located in Bryn Mawr, PA, specializing in showy, colorful, and unusual plants for shade.  The only plants that we ship are snowdrops and miniature hostas.  For catalogues and announcements of events, please send your full name, location, and cell number (for back up use only) to carolyn@carolynsshadegardens.com.  Click here to get to the home page of our website for catalogues and information about our nursery and to subscribe to our blog.

The Venetian Gothic gateway where the Ringlings welcomed their guests is now the entrance to the art museum.

The Ringlings purchased the property in 1911 and went on to own almost 25% of the land in Sarasota.  Between 1924 and 1926, Mable Ringling personally oversaw the construction of a $1.5 million Venetian Gothic palace on the banks of the bay.  Called “Ca’d’Zan” or House of John, it is five stories tall and 36,000 square feet with 56 rooms.  Mable used the finest materials, including colored marble, glazed terra cotta, and stained glass. 

In 1931, John Ringling opened a 21-gallery museum to house the art he acquired while searching Europe for circus acts.  It is modeled on the Uffizi in Florence, Italy, and has a giant piazza filled with replicas of Greek and Roman sculptures.  At his death in 1936, he bequeathed the museum, his home, and the grounds to the people of Florida.  The Ringling Circus Museum was added to the complex in 1948.

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The Ringling Art Museum surrounds this Venetian Gothic piazza.

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Ten 100-year-old Cuban royal palms flank the statue of David.

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Giant terra cotta pots line all the balustrades.  The floors of the colonnades are intricately fitted marble.

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A bride awaits her cue under the colonnades.

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We didn’t have time to tour the art museum, but it is quite beautiful.  Two of the galleries are the re-assembled salon and library from the 19th century Astor Mansion on Fifth Avenue in New York City.

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A lovely walk through the grounds and along the bay brings you to “Ca’d’Zan”.

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The Venetian Gothic palace that the Ringlings called home.  If you want to tour the inside, you need to buy tickets in advance as both times we were there, they were sold out.

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the waterside of “Ca’d’Zan”

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The marble piazza above leads to a water level boat landing on Sarasota Bay, which Mable Ringling considered her Venetian Grand Canal.

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The detailed workmanship on the outside of the house is gorgeous.

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Decorative glazed tiles are everywhere.

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Close up of the tile in the previous photo.

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Close up of the tile in the previous photo.

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The grounds around the museums are filled with mature trees dripping in Spanish moss.  There is also a famous rose garden installed by Mable Ringling, but unfortunately it was being renovated when we were there.

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Evergreen strangler figs, the only fig native to North America, have claimed many large trees as their victims.  They develop from seedlings in the crotches of established trees, sending aerial roots down to take hold in the soil, eventually smothering their hosts.

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a grove of strangler figs

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The Secret Garden where the Ringlings are buried.

Michael and I have toured The Ringling gardens twice and highly recommend a visit if you are in the Sarasota area.

Carolyn