Section 3.2: Coastal Gardens & Urban Nature Sanctuaries

Flamingo Gardens in Davie offers up-close encounters with Florida’s most colorful residents. Photo courtesy of Flamingo Gardens.

Back on the mainland, those yearning to explore a 170-acre tropical paradise housing plants from all over the world should head to the Gulf coast, home to the Naples Botanical Garden. February through April, the Garden offers Sunset Wednesdays. 

Educating the next generation of naturalists is an important goal at the Hobe Sound Nature Center in Martin County, hosting native wildlife presentations and field excursions. Guests also engage with interactive exhibits in the center’s museum and stroll nature trails meandering through scrublands toward the Intracoastal Waterway. Every first Sunday of the month, the center hosts the Sunday Snake Brunch. 

In fact, a variety of green, luxuriant conservation areas and gardens are tucked within mainland urban areas, often hiding in plain sight. In West Palm Beach, the Mounts Botanical Garden is a 20-acre living plant museum with 25 unique garden areas—including an herb garden, a Florida natives garden, a Gazebo Garden and a Japanese Garden. Special events include the seasonal Plant-a-Palooza plant sale. 

Mounts Botanical Garden is home to the Asian-inspired Garden of Tranquility, created by combining natural elements of stone, wood, and living plant materials. Photo by Roundhouse Creative Inc., courtesy of The Palm Beaches.

In the north Palm Beach County city of Jupiter, the Busch Wildlife Sanctuary boasts state-of-the-art facilities designed to foster wildlife rehabilitation, conservation and education. The Sanctuary’s enhanced amenities include spacious habitats, interactive exhibits and a fully equipped wildlife rehab center. In nearby West Palm Beach, the Manatee Lagoon-An FPL Eco-Discovery Center is a free educational attraction with a dedicated area for viewing manatees up close. The center also features hands-on exhibits where visitors learn all about these threatened, docile creatures. 

Sixty acres of lush gardens combine with an Everglades Wildlife Sanctuary at Flamingo Gardens west of Fort Lauderdale, featuring over 3,000 species of rare tropical, subtropical and native plants and trees, including orchids, fragrant flowering plants and tropical ferns. Among the wildlife dwelling here are the fluttering kind—colorful butterflies who fly free in a 1,600-sf Butterfly Conservatory, whose main purpose is to support and release nearly 12,000 butterflies every year. 

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