PICTURESQUE SELBY GARDENS IN DOWNTOWN SARASOTA

The Selby Botanical Garden in Downtown Sarasota is uniquely picturesque, from a painter’s point of view. The colors of the water, with the reflections of the greens, yellows, oranges, and the red bridge. Everything is put together more beautifully than most botanical gardens. The first time I visited was around 2007 or 2008; and I took many photos of the pond and the bridge in November 2020.

“Nestled on the shores of beautiful Sarasota Bay, Selby Gardens is a tropical urban oasis. Relax amidst nature’s beauty and allow the scenery of unparalleled botanical bliss to carry you away.”

Selby Gardens

“Marie Selby Botanical Gardens provides 45 acres of bayfront sanctuaries connecting people with air plants of the world, native nature, and our regional history. Established by forward thinking women of their time, Selby Gardens is composed of the 15-acre Downtown Sarasota campus and the 30-acre Historic Spanish Point campus in the Osprey area of Sarasota County, Florida. The Downtown Campus on Sarasota Bay is the only botanical garden in the world dedicated to the display and study of epiphytic orchids, bromeliads, gesneriads and ferns, and other tropical plants.

There is a significant focus on botany, horticulture, education, historical preservation, and the environment. The Historic Spanish Point (HSP) Campus is located less than 10 miles south along Little Sarasota Bay. The HSP Campus, one of the largest preserves showcasing native Florida plants that is interpreted for and open to the public, celebrates an archaeological record that encompasses approximately 5,000 years of Florida history. Marie Selby Botanical Gardens is a Smithsonian Affiliate and is also accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.” – credit Visit Florida 

SELBY GARDENS FACTS & FIGURES

• Hundreds of expeditions into the tropics and subtropics by Selby Gardens botanists have contributed to the most diverse living and preserved collection of epiphytes in the world.
• The Selby Gardens living collection numbers 13,500 plant accessions in 214 families.
• The Herbarium (SEL) has more than 115,000 dried specimens, with 2000 taxonomic types (the actual plant used in naming a new species). The Spirit Collection has more than 36,000 preserved orchid, gesneriad, and bromeliad flowers.
• The Research Library houses 7,000 books, including a rare book collection of 500 volumes, rare print collection of 2,500 prints dating to more than 100 years, and several hundred active periodicals, along with engravings, slides, videotapes, and microfiche files.
• Selby Gardens’botanists have discovered and/or described some 2,000 plant species new to science.
• Selbyana, a peer reviewed journal, published since 1975, publishes original research on tropical plants with emphasis on epiphytic plant families.
• Volunteers and research interns work with staff on tasks that range from pressing, labeling, and scanning plant specimens to identifying plants, conducting fieldwork, proofing publications, and assisting with collections and library management.

Garden Shop Contact

Hours

Open daily 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.*
Museum of Botany & the Arts closes at 4:30 p.m.
*Closed Christmas Day
Phone: 941-366-5731, ext. 242
Email: Click for Contact Form

Downtown Sarasota Campus
1534 Mound Street, Sarasota, FL 34236
941-366-5731

Contact Yoram Gal.