Tree Huggers

Banyans have those incredible trunks, willows are weepy, and oaks are famously mighty. But few trees are so strikingly beautiful that they’ve earned an annual festival dedicated to their floral magnificence. Offer all praise to the head-turning blossoms at this year’s Royal Poinciana Festival. Miami’s oldest continuously running (and arguably most genteel) festival has been encouraging visitors to gaze upward for 71 years.

This weekend’s celebration kicks off at The Kampong with a picnic lunch and antique car show at the former home of world-renowned botanist David Fairchild. That begins at noon and ends at 2 p.m. At 1:45, guests can depart for a $20 narrated trolley tour of Coral Gables and Coconut Grove, stopping to admire the flora along the way. The festivities continue Monday at 7 p.m. at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, where the 71st Royal Poinciana Queen and her court will be presented with scholarship funds, and visitors will be serenaded by the jazz music of Joe Donato.
Sun., June 8; Mon., June 9, 2008