Gaylord Opryland Nashville, TN

[teddytn]

I know people have posted about opryland before, but this is one of my favorite local places to go hangout especially during the winter. When it gets cold and need a taste of plant heaven I just take a 30min drive and I’m on a daycation. A lot of plants aren’t labeled, as far as really tropical plants my knowledge is limited. I’ll just post the pics and let them speak for themselves. A lot of palms had seeds hanging. I collected some from a very old chammie humilis, cherry on the top for today. It’s really an unbelievable place, I must have been here 30 times and I’m just awestruck every time. If a private garden had an 1/8 of the plants here as big as they are it would be priceless. 

[kinzyjr]

Very nice!

[JLM]

Beautiful place @teddytn!! Ive been to Opry Mills countless times but never there, always passed it though going back home to Hendersonville/Gallatin area. I sort of miss Nashville in a way, but have recently had a traumatic experience back in 2019, so i cant say i miss it that much. I am originally from Lafayette TN, you may or may not know where that is. Its in Macon County, which is two counties east of Montgomery County. Pretty small town compared to most places, but its slowly getting bigger though.

[teddytn]

7 hours ago, JLM said:

Beautiful place @teddytn!! Ive been to Opry Mills countless times but never there, always passed it though going back home to Hendersonville/Gallatin area. I sort of miss Nashville in a way, but have recently had a traumatic experience back in 2019, so i cant say i miss it that much. I am originally from Lafayette TN, you may or may not know where that is. Its in Macon County, which is two counties east of Montgomery County. Pretty small town compared to most places, but its slowly getting bigger though.

It’s really weird, it’s not advertised at all that I know of. And unless you’ve been there or word of mouth you would never know it had a world class collection of plants inside. I live in Montgomery county, I know where you’re talking about!

[JLM]

3 hours ago, teddytn said:

It’s really weird, it’s not advertised at all that I know of. And unless you’ve been there or word of mouth you would never know it had a world class collection of plants inside. I live in Montgomery county, I know where you’re talking about!

My parents have told me about it, ive also done some research on the 2010 flood as well. Never knew it had that many plants though!

[teddytn]

8 hours ago, JLM said:

My parents have told me about it, ive also done some research on the 2010 flood as well. Never knew it had that many plants though!

So many. All the understory annuals they change out with the seasons, sometimes there’s a bunch of orchids in all the boots of the palm trees. Christmas time is cool too if you’re into that, the whole place gets decorated and there’s lights everywhere 

[Palmarum]

That is very impressive!

Great coverage and photos. I had heard stories about this place for years but had never seen it before now. I have spoken with people I have met at plant shows & events that know this establishment in detail. They went on to excitingly describe the spread of plant material to me. It was almost hard to believe, but there it is. I think I spoke with a buyer once at TPIE that was in town looking for material for the hotel. The heights on some of those specimens are spectacular. Many of the palms are rare and unusual species. Definitely not the common type of material one expects to find in an indoor enclosure; usually it is the more expendable kind.

There is a lot of effort and compassion under that glass (or polycarbonate) ceiling.

Ryan

[teddytn]

1 hour ago, Palmarum said:

That is very impressive!

Great coverage and photos. I had heard stories about this place for years but had never seen it before now. I have spoken with people I have met at plant shows & events that know this establishment in detail. They went on to excitingly describe the spread of plant material to me. It was almost hard to believe, but there it is. I think I spoke with a buyer once at TPIE that was in town looking for material for the hotel. The heights on some of those specimens are spectacular. Many of the palms are rare and unusual species. Definitely not the common type of material one expects to find in an indoor enclosure; usually it is the more expendable kind.

There is a lot of effort and compassion under that glass (or polycarbonate) ceiling.

Ryan

I’m glad you noticed, it is a really special place. The super tropicals you may be a better judge of age. The w. Filifera and w. Robusta are big and mature but nothing out of the ordinary. What about the cycads though, the biggest one I took a picture of if it flushes twice a year has to be 50-60 year old plant. The really old chamaerops there’s 2 different ones in the pics, unbelievable must be 70-80 years maybe more. The ponytail palms and huge dracaena colony! The 30 foot tall monstera growing up the wall! The old man palm, 30 year old plant at least, maybe more. It’s crazy there, around every corner there’s a huge planting of amazing plants that makes you forget about what you just saw. For the average person walking around it’s just nice or pretty. For me I feel grateful and thankful just to see so many plants of that caliber in the same place. Imagine how much you would have to travel to see all those plants in their native habitat.

[JohnAndSancho]

If I can ever get my own hotel in order, it's on my bucket list to use my employee discount to take a trip up here. 

[mulungu]

In addition to the gorgeous palms, that pandanus is simply stunning.  

Have family in the Nashville area and when we visit for the holidays we always go out to Opryland Hotel to see the lights and the dancing waters. 

I love the fact that if you park for free at Opry Mills, visiting the Hotel atria is an absolutely free excursion-- one of the nicest free things to do in Nashville. (I otherwise don't set foot at Opry Mills... many fond childhood memories of the Opryland theme park and, decades later, I still never reward Gaylord for turning it into a mall by shopping there!)

The Hotel's conservatories are like a stroll through paradise. Thank you for these beautiful photos!

[HtownPalms]

Haven't been throughout Nashville in a long time, but next time I stop in I will have to check this place out. I would have never guessed they had such a nice collection of tropical plants. 

[teddytn]

14 minutes ago, HtownPalms said:

Haven't been throughout Nashville in a long time, but next time I stop in I will have to check this place out. I would have never guessed they had such a nice collection of tropical plants. 

It’s really weird, local people obviously know about the hotel/ convention center and it’s right next to one of the biggest malls and the grand old opry like country music venue forever. I think a lot of people are under the impression you have to be staying at the hotel to be able to walk around. Literally like @mulungu said just park for free at the mall and walk over to the hotel. All the exterior doors are unlocked, and they have a ton of eateries and restaurants and bars that are open to the public as well, they definitely want as much business as they can get.

[JohnAndSancho]

Fwiw I manage a Marriott, pm me and I'll get Friends and Family rate forms for any non locals that want to visit this amazing indoor palm garden. 

[EJ;)]

On 5/9/2021 at 4:11 PM, teddytn said:

I know people have posted about opryland before, but this is one of my favorite local places to go hangout especially during the winter. When it gets cold and need a taste of plant heaven I just take a 30min drive and I’m on a daycation. A lot of plants aren’t labeled, as far as really tropical plants my knowledge is limited. I’ll just post the pics and let them speak for themselves. A lot of palms had seeds hanging. I collected some from a very old chammie humilis, cherry on the top for today. It’s really an unbelievable place, I must have been here 30 times and I’m just awestruck every time. If a private garden had an 1/8 of the plants here as big as they are it would be priceless. 

I dont think I would want to leave either!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I dont think 

[Little Tex]

I’m at the Gaylord right now and unfortunately most of the super tall palms have been removed along with some of the old chamerops, the cerlyxon and a lot of the solitaire palms have been replaced with foxtails, it’s still amazing though and the truly massive oil palm and  the red sealing wax palms are doing somewhat fine, but they have a young looking beccariophoenix Alfreddi at the delta island 

[Allen]

1 hour ago, Little Tex said:

I’m at the Gaylord right now and unfortunately most of the super tall palms have been removed along with some of the old chamerops, the cerlyxon and a lot of the solitaire palms have been replaced with foxtails, it’s still amazing though and the truly massive oil palm and  the red sealing wax palms are doing somewhat fine, but they have a young looking beccariophoenix Alfreddi at the delta island 

Haven't been in a year or 2 and I'm right down the road 30 mins from it.