The best thing about Busch Gardens Food and Wine Festival might be the collection of new topiaries that dot the park, from a huge octopus rising from a fountain to a ginormous spring maiden to a funny collection of "topirazzi" photographers — so you have bushes snapping pictures from the bushes.
When the festival was first unveiled for the media March 6, Busch Gardens president Jim Dean was excited to see the Spirit of Spring, a topiary of a woman that stands serene and immense in Bird Gardens, with her forearms wrapped around a pond.
"At first we thought these should be special just for the festival but I really don't want them to go away," Dean said as the topiary underwent its final touches.
It took 165,000 plants of six different species to create the woman inspired by a 100-year-old bronze art nouveau sculpture. Spirit of Spring weighs more than 25 tons and has its own internal irrigation system and reflecting pool.
"But now I'm thinking," Dean said, "why don't we keep them and just keep adding more?"