Admission to Marie Selby Botanical Gardens

Visit: Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, Sarasota, Florida

The Gardens are open every day except Christmas from 10:00 to 5:00. Daytime admission includes all outdoor gardens, Tropical Conservatory, Museum of Botany and the Arts, and the Garden Shop. Parking is free. Marie Selby Botanical Gardens is handicap accessible. Daily free “walk and talk” tours are conducted by experienced docents weaving local history, horticultural tidbits and the science of botany into a 25-minute tour featuring Gardens highlights. The historic Selby House Café offers a wide variety of snacks, refreshments (including wine / beer), salads, sandwiches and fresh-baked goodies. As ever-changing as the flowers in the Gardens, the Garden Shop has a dynamic inventory of jewelry, accessories, gifts, custom floral arrangements and living plants.
Several horticulture features are among the most popular with guests and visiting scientists alike and include:
Ann Goldstein Children’s Rainforest Garden – One of the only outdoor, elevated rainforest displays in the world, this feature is designed to give visitors a taste of what it must feel like to live in a tree canopy. Visitors learn about the intricate web of connections between plants and people. Through self-directed exploration and interactive play, multi-generations come together to champion the environment.
Tropical Conservatory – With its lush rainforest atmosphere, this is the only greenhouse at Selby Gardens open to the public and the horticulture displays change frequently as different plants in the living collection come into bloom.
Towering Bamboo Garden – Tropical and sub-tropical varieties are the largest member of the grass family that can grow as much as 40 inches a day during their seasonal growth periods.
Banyan Groves – Planted by the Selbys nearly a century ago, these majestic trees continue to provide a shaded meeting place for conversation and relaxation.
Mangrove Bay Walk – A wooden boardwalk makes it possible to explore and learn about the intricate root system of three mangrove species native to South Florida.
Fern Garden – Prehistoric plants in this garden-off-the-beaten-path invite meditation and provide a silent space for solitude and contemplation.
Koi Pond – Surrounded by an oak grove festooned with a variety of epiphytic plants, colorful (and hungry) Koi fish glide playfully around this Zen-like area of the Gardens