IT’S YOUR ENVIRONMENT
Find an oasis in paradise at the Key West Tropical Forest
KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER
So you live in paradise. Nonetheless, you probably still find a need to escape sometimes. I’ve got just the place for you. The Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden on Stock Island.
The 15 acres of gardens offer an ideal place to walk the dog, lunch on the patio in front of a wall of water and foliage, spot butterflies and birds or just get lost on the dirt paths of Desbiens Pond or Tropical Hardwood Hammock trails. Dappled sunlight and cooling shade drip through the canopy overhead.
About 16,000 visitors come here per year, which is surprisingly few for a place so enchanted. As I walked through the forest with my dog, an ethereal melody from the Freetones Harmony Park echoed across the gardens, courtesy of visitors Aimee, Justina and Michael Mishkovsky, who were visiting from New Jersey and were visibly enthralled with what they found.
The Gardens began as a Works Progress Administration project to help rebuild Key West’s faltering economy after the depression, and received funding from the State’s federal Emergency Relief Administration in 1934, with its grand opening on Feb. 23, 1936.
Regina Zimmermann, a social worker and journalist, and her dog Schroeder, come here three times a week during her three-month stay at the nearby golf club community.
“It’s wonderful,” she said, adding that she really wasn’t ready to end her residence here to return to her home in southwestern Germany.
The gardens, the only frost-free botanic gardens on American soil, outside of Hawaii, attract 50 known butterfly species, numerous migrating birds and are home to hundreds of threatened tropical plants. The biodiversity here is staggering. Each time I visit this secluded habitat, I find something new, or learn something.
As I visited with volunteer coordinator and gift shop manager Carole DeHart and her Rottweiler Sunshine in the courtyard, a pair of bald eagles soared overhead amidst dozens of turkey vultures.
Threatened, endangered and native plants are highlighted throughout the 8 ½ developed acres portion of the property, and are marked in the guide to the gardens, an 80-plus page book full of information and color photos sold at the visitor’s center for $3.
The Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Gardens at 5210 College Road is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, and admission is $7 for ages 12 to 65. Children younger than 12 are free, and anyone 65 and older get in for $5. Yearly memberships are available for $35 for individuals and $50 for families. Visit kwbgs.org for more information on visiting, classes, educational programs and volunteer opportunities, or call 305-296-1504.
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