Hike Bike Paddle Camp Florida with authors Sandra Friend and John Keatley as your guides
Public gardens, private garden attractions, and botanical gardens
In a tropical forest across the street from Fort Lauderdale Beach, Hugh Taylor Birch State Park is the former estate of Chicago attorney Hugh Taylor Birch. Built in 1940, Birch’s home, TerraMar, displays both Mediterranean and Art Deco architecture and serves as the visitor’s center.
One of the most beautiful and complex gardens in Florida, Kanapaha Botanical Gardens sits beneath grand live oaks with more than a dozen themed gardens on 62 acres. Bamboo is their specialty, with Florida’s best collection of these tall grasses.
With boardwalks and natural footpaths winding amid curated collections against a backdrop of natural Florida Keys habitats, the Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden is a delightful natural destination.
When Dr. Cyrus Teed founded a commune along the banks of the Estero River in 1894, he envisioned a utopia in the tropics. Koreshan State Park preserves that slice of history.
Conceived in the Art Deco era and shaded by a canopy of ancient oaks, the Maitland Art Center is, in part, a fantasy of a Mayan temple with formal gardens around historic art studios.
Most notable for its collection of more than 6,000 orchids, Marie Selby Gardens are a must-see for those who love tropical plants, especially epiphtyes. The many specialized gardens range from a children’s garden play area to succulents and cycads to a banyan grove, mangrove walkway, and tropical fruit and medicinal gardens.
Established as McKee Jungle Gardens by local legend Waldo E. Sexton in 1929 with the guidance of landscape architect William Lyman Phillips, a carefully designed tropical garden emerged under a canopy of old and venerable native trees.
A 47-acre urban preserve, Mead Garden is a pleasant place for a forested walk of less than a mile in Winter Park, hosting many special events under its canopy of oaks.
Dense woodlands, open plains, and lakes: it’s all recreated here just outside the fence of the West Palm Beach International Airport at Mounts Botanical Garden, where unusual trees like baobab and rainbow eucalyptus are with more common tropical flora and native species.
At Naples Botanical Garden, buildings, landscaping, and nature live in harmony, with a delicate balance of natural spaces and lush gardens accented with art achieved.
First established in 1919 by botanist Henry Nehrling as a caladium farm, Caribbean Gardens grew into a major tourist attraction for tropical trees and plants, and is now the Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens.
An oasis of serenity in Spring Hill, several acres of compact garden rooms make up the Nature Coast Botanical Gardens. Each delights the senses with an ever-changing array of blooms and colors.
