Marie Selby Botanical Gardens adopts Historic Spanish Point as a companion campus to Selby Gardens’ Downtown location
SARASOTA, Fla., April 17, 2020 – The Marie Selby Botanical Gardens Board of Trustees today is pleased to announce that Historic Spanish Point will be joining its organization as a companion campus as of May 1, 2020. Combining two nonprofits with similar missions,...
Selby Gardens’ Jade Vine is Pregnant!
The stunning jade vine (Strongylodon macrobotrys; family Fabaceae) in Selby Gardens’ Tropical Conservatory is developing a seed pod for the first time. The reason, greenhouse horticulturist Addie Worth provided pollination assistance! Without some help, jade vines...
Bizarre Passion Flower in Bloom
Written by Selby Gardens Vice President for Botany, Bruce Holst One of Selby Gardens' strangest passion flower vines is beginning to bloom this year, and it has the oddest scientific name of all, Passiflora xiikzodz. The species name is pronounced "sheik zoats." In...
Selby Gardens’ Plant Hunt in Your Own Backyard!
Take your quarantine outdoors for a nature exploration! The Selby Gardens education team is now offering tools and scavenger hunts to help keep your family's minds and bodies working. Start with the Selby Gardens' plant hunt in your own backyard. This is the perfect...
Selby Gardens’ Award-winning educator of the year brings shares The Very Hungry Caterpillar
According to the publisher Penguin Random House, somebody somewhere around the world buys a copy of Eric Carle's children’s book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, once every 30 seconds. Last year was the book’s 50th(!) anniversary, so there’s a very good chance you, or...
Science Saturday: Scenes from Botany’s field work in southwest Florida
The Botany team at Selby Gardens collaborates with our neighboring counties to study rare Florida plants in efforts to conserve them in the wild. They gather ecological and lifecycle data, as well as DNA samples of plants to name just a few of the activities they...
Plants of Dalí
Salvador Dalí was well-known for his surreal paintings. His work often featured everyday objects portrayed with atypical or amorphous forms, his melted watches being one of the most iconic . He was fascinated by irregular shapes and could envision people or animals...
Salvador Dalí’s “Gardens of the Mind”
Curator-at Large, Dr. Carol Ockman ROBERT STERLING CLARK PROFESSOR OF ART HISTORY EMERITA, WILLIAMS COLLEGE Behind the intriguing, and equally disturbing, soft watches, abstracted heads with noses balanced on the ground, clusters of ants, grimacing lions’ heads,...
Bromeliad Tree Sale
Bromeliads play a big role at Selby Gardens, and they are literally in the spotlight at Lights in Bloom each year within the Bromeliad Tree. This year, the Bromeliad tree features five different bromeliad varieties. It was constructed with more than 600 Bromeliads by...
The Tradition of Mistletoe
Mistletoe has had a variety of meanings and uses throughout many different times and cultures, including the well-known holiday tradition of kissing under the mistletoe. This week, one of Selby Gardens’ botanists found mistletoe growing in a laurel oak tree on the...