Key West Botanical Garden

With carefully cultivated and curated collections against a backdrop of natural Florida Keys habitats, this expansive garden and woodland on Stock Island took root more than 80 years ago.

Accented by annual showings of outdoor art by local artists, it’s a pleasant, dog-friendly place for a walk in nature.

Resources

South Florida Explorers Guide book cover

Overview

Location: Key West
Length: 1 mile network of loops
Trailhead: 24.5729, -81.7491
Address: 510 College Rd, Key West
Fees: $10 adult, $7 senior, active military and members free, child free with adult
Restroom: at the visitor center
Land manager: Key West Botanical Garden Society
Phone: 305-296-1504

Open 10-4 daily, shortened hours Christmas and New Years. Leashed pets welcome.

Cyclists, park your bicycle outside the gate. Please stay within the marked paths for your safety and to keep the plants healthy.

Directions

As you are approaching Key West on US 1, turn off on College Rd at the traffic light on Stock Island just before Cow Key Bridge. The entrance is a quarter mile up College Rd on the right.

About the Gardens

Set in a botanically significant patch of natural tropical forest on Stock Island, the Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden is a natural wonder.

While its roots stem back to a 1930s Federal project to build a tourism destination to help get Key West back on its feet after the Great Depression, it was neglected during World War II.

Portions of its land were grabbed by government agencies for other uses. Not until 1961 did the city officially preserve what was left of the garden, and the Key West Garden Club, with assistance from civic organizations, began rebuilding.

Our first visit to the gardens was in the late 90s. Since, we’ve watched it blossom, ever-changing, from a central focus on a butterfly garden, Desbiens Pond, and a tiny patch of dense tropical forest.

It’s now a family-friendly, dog-friendly, accessible network of boardwalks and bridges that connect curated collections of tropical plants and native species in the Florida Keys and Caribbean.

One of the unique cultural exhibits on site is the Cuban Chugs collection (adjoining a collection of Cuban palms), showcasing the creative engineering and daring that immigrants used to cross the Florida Straits to freedom.

The gardens always seem to be expanding. Executive Director Misha McRae shares that even more expansion is in store, with more acreage available to continue to let the garden grow.

One of the ever-changing aspects of the garden is Art in the Garden, an annual display of natural sculptures by local artists, fit right into the natural environment.

The project features pieces utilizing recycled materials and “natural debris” collected by the artists. You’ll find these pieces of art tucked long the trails as you roam throughout the complex.

Hike

The pathways of Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden are broken into thematic walking trail tours, many of which are boardwalks but some of which are natural surfaces.

Signage directs you along the thematic routes, each of which focuses on a collection of identified plants. Numbered posts correspond to information in the tour brochures.

All tours can also be viewed on your smartphone by scanning a QR code on the signs, or by calling a phone number listed on the sign for an audio tour version.

The following route is one of many you can take.

Start your walk from the courtyard just past the Visitor Center. After taking a look at the labeled tropical trees and epiphytes in this formal setting with its backdrop of a waterfall wall, turn right and follow the boardwalk to the left.

It comes to a T intersection with the Boardwalk Tour, a boardwalk that loops the Butterfly Garden. Turn left.

At the next T intersection, turn left to follow a natural surface pathway into the tropical forest for the Western Loop Tour.

The trail winds between gumbo limbo, inkwood, blolly, and other tropical trees that were not planted here; they are part of a sliver of natural habitat that remains in Key West.

The forest is quite dense and you’ll find yourself pushing palm fronds out of the way as you walk the loop. A short spur trail leads off to the left after you finish the loop.

Returning to the intersection where you started the Western Loop Tour, keep left. Around a quarter mile, walk beneath extremely large royal poinciana and some of the tallest poisonwood trees we’ve ever seen.

At the sign for the Historic Butterfly Garden Tour, follow the path to the boardwalk and turn left. Continue along the boardwalk through this original core portion of the gardens.

When you reach the Desbiens Pond Tour, leave the boardwalk and follow the natural footpath along this buttonwood pond. As it’s fresh water, many birds are attracted to the pond, making this a great corner of the pond for birding.

Circling the pond, meet the Hammock Tour, which showcases another portion of the natural tropical hammock.

Where you see the boardwalk, take the mulched path to join it again at a half mile to start the Blue Butterfly Garden Tour.

This thematic garden showcases host plants for Blue butterflies found in the Florida Keys, such as the Ceranunus Blue and the rare Miami Blue.

As the Northside Boardwalk was being rebuilt, we followed the Historic Butterfly Garden Tour boardwalk back towards the Visitor Center.

Behind the Visitor Center, join the boardwalk that offers views across the large pond. It’s here you’ll find the North Side Pond Tour and the Keys Cactus Barren Demonstration Garden, as well as nice panoramas all along this walk.

A bridge leads across the pond to the South Side Pond Tour, which incorporates many native Florida Keys shrubs and trees like the Black Calabash and the Seven-Year Apple. Backtrack to the Visitor Center to leave the complex.

Cuban palm collection at the Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden

Walk up the entrance walkway past a collection of musical instruments set among the vegetation along the pond. Continue along this walkway past the parking area to walk to the labyrinth and the Cuban Palm Tour.

Just beyond the Cuban palms are the collection of Cuban chugs that adjoin a picnic pavilion. Return back along the same path to reach the parking area.

Trail Map

Explore More!

Learn more about the Cuban Chugs exhibit at the gardens

Cuban chugs in Key West

Sometimes we take history for granted. A walk through the Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden led to a collection of Cuban chugs, which we didn’t know what they were until we learned their story.