Marie Selby Botanical Garden Logo

Team Selby

Selby Gardens Comet Orchid In Bloom – January

Selby Gardens Comet Orchid In Bloom – January

Scientific Name: Angraecum sesquipedale Common Name: comet orchid Family: Orchidaceae Origin: Madagascar Prominently on display in the tropical Conservatory at Selby Gardens’ is the magnificent Angraecum sesquipedale.  This dramatic Angraecum is not only a beautiful...

read more
Red Maple (soapberry family) – January

Red Maple (soapberry family) – January

Acer rubrum (Sapindaceae) Origin: Eastern United States Found from Eastern Texas to the coastal forests of North Carolina and Nova Scotia all the way south to the Everglades, red maple is one of the most common trees in the Eastern United States. It is adapted to a...

read more
Belize ExpeditionSelby’s Living Collection

Belize Expedition
Selby’s Living Collection

If you’re looking to immerse yourself in the wonder of nature, a botanical garden may be just what you’re looking for. Vibrant paths of beautiful green foliage and exotic flowers will have you feeling as though you are walking through a tropical...

read more
Saw Palmetto (palm family) – November

Saw Palmetto (palm family) – November

Florida is a land of many habitats. Coastal dunes, river banks, dry scrub, wet prairie, and pinelands all vary from each other, and all feature different plants. They also feature some of the same plants. One they all share in common is saw palmetto. Bane to the existence of early explorers and modern botanists alike, it gets its common name from the minutely-toothed petioles, which can really do a number on your shins when hiking through a dense clump of the small palms. Unlike most palms, which feature a vertical trunk and grow to be very tall, saw palmetto forms a trunk which scrambles around on top of the ground, sometimes for many meters. When they do grow vertically, they rarely reach over three or four meters tall.

read more
Goldenrod (Sunflower Family) – October

Goldenrod (Sunflower Family) – October

Fall is one of the best times of year in Florida to see native wildflowers blooming. We have so many different habitats represented in our state, from sandy beaches to wet swamps and everything in between, and wildflowers can be found in all of them. A versatile genus which has species represented in many of these diverse habitats, and can be seen blooming everywhere right now, is Solidago. This wildflower can be found from the beaches to the prairies to recently burned pinelands.

read more
Cultivating International Partners for Mutual Benefit

Cultivating International Partners for Mutual Benefit

Unlike artwork in a museum, the Selby Gardens’ collec­tions are made up of living plants (unless they are part of our spirit or herbarium collections) that require care and maintenance for healthy growth and development. Despite best efforts, nothing lives...

read more
Bamboo: a Beautiful Grass that Thinks It’s a Tree

Bamboo: a Beautiful Grass that Thinks It’s a Tree

Bamboo is one of nature’s most interesting plants.  Although it looks like a tree, Bamboo is actually a perennial evergreen in the grass family.  There are over a thousand different species in the world, with a tremendous diversity of sizes, growth habits, and...

read more
This Is a Love Story

This Is a Love Story

This legacy of love is a perpetual gift IT BEGINS WITH A CHEMIST AND A MIDDLE SCHOOL ART TEACHER, ORIGINALLY FROM CHICAGO, WHO FOUND THEIR WAY TO SARASOTA COUNTY AND SELBY GARDENS FOLLOWING A LONG AGO HONEYMOON IN SOUTH FLORIDA. It ends with a shared love of this...

read more