The Marie Selby Botanical Gardens
Sarasota, Florida


By Rick Brown

Right on the bay … right in the city … you will find this incredibly beautiful paradise. Ms. Selby lived much of her childhood in Marietta, Ohio, marrying Bill Selby there in 1908. Mr. Selby was a wealthy oilman and he soon took his young bride to Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Between the Selbys and John Ringling (Ringling Circus), Sarasota is now blessed with artistic, architectural, and landscape nirvanas. Mary Selby passed away in 1971, bequeathing the family home and surrounding grounds to Sarasota so the public could enjoy it as she had. An avid gardener herself, she built the foundation for what is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful display of flora and fauna in the country. Ms. Selby is also noteworthy for being the very first woman to travel across America in an automobile.

Rather than try to explain with words, I will let the following photos tell the story. The Selby Botanical Gardens specialize in epiphytic plants. These plants live on other plants without using them in any way for sustenance. This makes the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens unique from the more than 200 botanical gardens in the United States.

http://www.selby.org/