Last Updated on September 28, 2022
By Dave G. Houser
Although most tourists flock to the Sunshine State for its gorgeous beaches and fun-filled theme parks, Florida is also home to a number of the nation’s most lush and exotic botanical gardens.
Horticulturists, gardeners and ordinary nature lovers will find these enticing green oases the answer to a vacation dream come true.
From Jacksonville to Coral Gables to Sarasota – here are eight of Florida’s finest botanical gardens.
Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Jacksonville
Idyllically located on the banks of the St. Johns River in Florida, the Cummer Museum’s botanical gardens are spectacular. They are also the most important public gardens in Northeast Florida.
The gardens are the creation of the Cummer family, prominent lumber barons of the time, in the early 1900s. They bear the imprint of some of the foremost names in landscape design and horticulture, including Ellen Biddle Shipman, Thomas Meehan & Sons and the prestigious Olmstead firm. The museum and gardens are on the National Register of Historic Places.
Throughout the year, the gardens dazzle with rare plant specimens nestled under a canopy of mature live oak trees. Special features abound, including fountains, reflecting pools, arbors, antique ornaments and a large collection of sculptures.
The Cummer Museum
829 Riverside Avenue
Jacksonville, FL 32204
Tel: (904) 356-6857
Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, Sarasota
Tucked away in 15 acres of lush subtropical foliage on Sarasota Bay, the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens complex is one of the world’s most prestigious botanical centers.
It was founded in 1971 as the first and only botanical garden in the world focused solely on the study and display of epiphytes (plants that grow on other plants rather than in soil). It includes most orchid species. No question, this place is an orchid lover’s delight.
The garden was once the home of oilman William Selby and his wife Marie, who left the property to the city of Sarasota when she passed away in 1971. Beyond the colorful profusion of orchids, the garden offers a collection of bromeliads from pineapples to Spanish moss. It also has an amazing collection of palm trees from around the world and a mangrove walkway bordering the bay.
Selby Gardens hosts an orchid festival each fall focusing on different themes and complimented by special events, lectures and classes.
Marie Selby Botanical Gardens
1534 Mound Street
Sarasota, FL 34236
Tel: (941) 366.5731
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Coral Gables
Established in 1938 by Col. Robert H. Montgomery, Fairchild was named for Montgomery’s friend and fellow tropical plant enthusiast Dr. David Fairchild.
The 83-acre Florida botanical garden houses a vast collection of tropical plants gathered from around the world by Fairchild. The garden’s headline attraction is the Lin Lougheed Spiny Forest of Madagascar. It is named for the major donor and art collector. It nurtures a variety of that island nation’s exotic plants, including spiny octopus trees, swollen baobabs, cactuses and desert roses.
Also very popular is the garden’s butterfly conservatory, housed in the Paul and Swanee DiMare Science Village. Twice daily the staff releases butterflies into the conservatory — much to the delight of visitors.
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
10901 Old Cutler Road
Coral Gables, FL 33156
Tel: (305) 667-1651
Morikami Museum & Japanese Garden, Delray Beach
This complex of six botanical gardens spread over 200 acres in Palm Beach County, Florida is the creation of Japanese garden designer Hoichu Kurisu. Kurisu says he intended it to help visitors “lay aside the chaos of a troubled world.” The time is obviously right for a visit.
To accomplish that goal, Kurisu made use of small lakes and pathways that wind through pine forests, bamboo groves and rock arrangements.
With its two landscaped islands joined by a bridge, Morikami’s gardens are inspired by those of Japanese nobles from the 9th to 20th centuries. The museum’s collection of bonsai trees is one of the top three such collections in the world.
Morikami Museum & Japanese Garden
4000 Morikami Park Road
Delray Beach, FL 33446
Tel: (561) 495-0233
Naples Botanical Garden, Naples
This 170-acre Florida botanical garden features designs from a team of internationally celebrated landscape architects. It includes cultivated gardens of Florida, Brazil, Asia, the Caribbean – and a Water Garden filled with water lilies, lotus and papyrus.
It focuses on the cultivation and preservation of plants that grow between the 26th parallel north and the 26th parallel south. Additionally, the gardens features seven ecosystems including mangroves, marshes and pristine forests where hundreds of animal species and more than 300 species of exotic and native plants thrive.
In 2017, just eight years after opening, the Naples Botanical Garden became the youngest to win the Garden of Excellence award from the American Public Gardens Association.
Naples Botanical Garden
4820 Bayshore Drive
Naples, FL 34112
Tel: (239) 643-7275
Bok Tower Gardens, Lake Wales
This popular Central Florida botanical garden was founded in the early 1920s as a bird sanctuary by Dutch immigrant and publisher of the Ladies’ Home Journal, Edward Bok.
Bok soon added a carillon tower and gardens as the property expanded from 53 to nearly 300 acres. The 205-foot-high neo-Gothic Singing Tower dominates the park. Made of local stone, the tower houses a 60-bell carillon that rings forth twice daily.
The signature feature here is the 50-acre Frederick Law Olmstead Jr.-designed gardens. It forms the core of Bok Tower Gardens. Bursting with magnolias, azaleas and camellias, this garden is at its best at full bloom in February and March.
Bok Tower Gardens
1151 Tower Boulevard
Lake Wales, FL 33853
Tel: (863) 676-1408
Kanapaha Botanical Gardens, Gainesville
Named for a nearby lake in Florida, 62-acre Kanapaha Botanical Gardens is comprised of 24 distinct gardens. They include Florida’s largest public display of bamboo and the largest herb garden in the Southeast.
In addition to its prized stand of Chinese royal bamboo, the gardens’ signature plants include giant Victoria water lilies and Asian snake arums.
Kanapaha hosts a number of festivals and special events, including a two-day Camelia Show in January, a Spring Garden Festival and a Moonlight Walk, when paths and meadows are illuminated by special laser lights and more than 1,500 luminaires.
Kanapaha Botanical Gardens
4700 SW 58th Drive
Gainesville, FL 32608US
Tel: (352) 372-4981
Vizcaya Museum & Gardens, Miami
No doubt Florida’s flashiest botanical gardens, Vizcaya recreates the glorious French- and Italian-style gardens of the 17th and 18th centuries, exuding both elegance and fantastical whimsy.
Built between 1914 and 1922 by retired International Harvester executive V-P and conservationist James Deering. Vizcaya is set on a magnificent 50-acre estate featuring almost 10 acres of formal Italian- and French-style gardens. It was designed by famed international landscape architect Diego Suarez.
The Fountain Garden features a plaza with a fountain from the Italian town of Sutri. And hidden among the strangler figs, Suarez added a two-story “Secret Garden.” There cactus flowers and succulents bloom in pots built into the stucco walls.
Vizcaya Museum & Gardens
3251 South Miami Avenue
Miami, FL 33129
Tel: (305) 250-9133
These look like beautiful gardens to visit! Great story.
I belong to Naples Botanical Garden- are there any reciprocal admission fees between botanical gardens?
Hi Mike, the American Horticultural Society has a reciprocal admissions program at at 345+ gardens throughout North America. Of course, you’ll have to join the society ($35) to take advantage of the program. Go Here: https://ahsgardening.org/gardening-programs/rap/
Check online, however, many gardens have a radius in which the perk does not apply, some as large as 100 miles. I maintain a low cost membership with Friends of the Mitchell Domes, in Milwaukee, far beyond any restricted zones. I think I pay $35 for a Senior +1 membership, less than the cost of one visit with a friend to Fairchild.
Thank you Jean!
Be aware Vizcaya is closed on Tuesdays.
Thank you for that info Sandra.
Jim