Marie Selby Botanical Gardens Announces 2024-2025 Season

August 28, 2024 | Sarasota

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens officially kicks-off its season with a year-long schedule of special exhibitions, programs, and exciting events. As Selby Gardens continues its mission to provide bayfront sanctuaries that connect people with air plants, native nature, and regional history, it invites visitors to engage in the exploration of the gardens today and into the future.

Selby Gardens’ President and CEO, Jennifer Rominiecki, stated, “Selby Gardens is delighted to welcome visitors locally, from across the United States, and from around the world to our 2024-2025 season at both campuses. The newly expanded Downtown Sarasota campus now features 188,030 square feet of solar powered facilities and amenities to better accommodate guests, making Selby Gardens the first net positive energy botanical complex in the world generating more energy than consumed.”

Rominiecki continues, “Marie Selby’s visionary gift to our community has become a beloved botanical garden with two campuses and a renowned research facility. We look forward to celebrating a year long schedule of unique horticultural beauty and one-of-a-kind exhibitions as The Living Museum™.”

SEASON HIGHLIGHTS:

EXHIBITIONS

The Orchid Show 2024: PURPLE! presented by Better-Gro

On view October 5 through December 1, 2024

Downtown Sarasota campus

Between the colors red and blue lies a range of vibrant hues that makes up the wild and wonderful world of purple. Immerse yourself in purple flowers and foliage at this year’s Orchid Show at Selby Gardens’ Downtown Sarasota campus, showcasing the magnificence and majesty of the royal family of plants. Purple hues are common in the orchid family, found both in naturally occurring species orchids and in human-bred cultivars and hybrids. The prevalence of purple orchid flowers is a testament to the power of their allure for people and pollinators alike.

The Orchid Show 2024: PURPLE! presented by Better-Gro, will combine a stunning display of purple orchids in the Tropical Conservatory with a dynamic exhibition of botanical books, prints, photographs, and other materials in the Museum of Botany & the Arts. The conservatory will be filled with masses of purple orchid flowers and other plants with purple foliage. Ultraviolet light and purplish-colored films will be used to present these beautiful botanicals in fun and exciting ways, creating a rich and vivid visual experience. The museum will explore the history of purple pigments and dyes, as well as the many and varied associations of purple, ranging from royalty and luxury to wisdom and magic. The exhibition will also highlight the numerous botanical connections to purple hues, including rose, lavender, violet, and – of course – orchid!

Selby Gardens is home to the finest scientifically documented collection of living orchids in the world. The Orchid Show will build on the strength of this outstanding collection and celebrate the beauty and diversity of one of the most popular families of flowering plants.

Patti Smith: A Book of Days

Presenting Sponsor of the Patti Smith Residency: Marianne and William McComb

Presenting Exhibition Sponsor: Gulf Coast Community Foundation

On view November 9, 2024 through August 31, 2025

Historic Spanish Point campus

Selby Gardens is excited to collaborate with Artist-in-Residence Patti Smith on this upcoming exhibition at the Historic Spanish Point campus. The exhibition will feature a selection of photographs taken by the famed poet and musician that offers an intimate view of her life on and off the road. The photographs are taken from Smith’s recently published, New York Times bestselling publication, A Book of Days. Inspired by the popularity of her Instagram account, where she began posting photographs back in 2018, this beautiful book offers a window into

her world and illustrates her unique aesthetic. The exhibition at Selby Gardens will feature large prints of Smith’s photographs outdoors, bringing them into dialogue with nature, which has long been a source of inspiration for the legendary artist. Her compelling images will take visitors on a journey through time and space, charting both the course of a year and the natural environment of the Historic Spanish Point campus.

Jean & Alfred Goldstein Exhibition Series

On view February 9 through June 29, 2025

Downtown Sarasota campus

Details to be announced.

SEASONAL LIGHT SHOWS

Lights at Spooky Point | Sponsored by Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation

On view October 9 through October 31, 2024

Historic Spanish Point campus

A Halloween Tradition, Lights at Spooky Point returns to Historic Spanish Point for a third season and brings fantastically fun creations and unique Halloween Lights at every bend of an eerily lit path through the wooded campus and past several historic structures. This classic Halloween experience is designed for all ages. Visit selby.org for ticket information.

Lights in Bloom

On view December 5, 2024 through January 1, 2025

Downtown Sarasota campus

Lights in Bloom® will feature more than two million lights illuminating the gardens and walkways of our Downtown Sarasota campus and is a fun holiday tradition that offers photo opportunities, activities, and entertainment. This award-winning holiday light show will return to Selby Gardens this December. Visit selby.org for ticket information.

MAJOR EVENTS

An Evening with Patti Smith and her Book of Days | November 14, 2024

Presenting Sponsor of the Patti Smith Residency: Marianne and William McComb

Historic Spanish Point campus

Selby Gardens Artist-in-Residence Patti Smith will return for a special evening performance. Smith’s program will be tied to her Historic Spanish Point exhibition, A Book of Days.

Details and ticket information to be announced.

The Orchid Ball 2025 |February 8, 2025

Downtown Sarasota campus

This elegant evening celebrates the soon-to-be-announced 2025 Jean & Alfred Goldstein exhibition throughout the grounds of Selby Gardens’ Downtown Sarasota campus. The evening will also include a special toast to commemorate the 10^th Anniversary of Selby Gardens’ President and CEO, Jennifer O. Rominiecki. Proceeds support Selby Gardens’ community education programs, international research, conservation, and beautiful world-class horticulture displays, while enabling thousands of underserved children and their families to connect with our bayfront sanctuaries.