In my journey to find off the beaten track attractions in Miami that go beyond beaches and the Everglades I found a charming haven – the Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens. What a lovely treat, not at all what I expected to find. A huge grounds with an impressive layout covering all types of gardens, flowers, trees, plants, and even butterflies and public art. The best way to cover the entire estate on a short visit is to take their trolley tour with some very interesting introduction to all that you can see and experience.
Charming, isn’t it?
The official website has the background :
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden is truly a unique place. Here you can walk garden paths surrounded by the wonders and beauty of nature, talk to experts in horticulture, conservation and science, view impressive art, see butterflies and birds at every turn and take classes on everything from photography to grafting.
Who We Are
Fairchild is dedicated to exploring, explaining and conserving the world of tropical plants. […] As we work around the world, Fairchild’s level of dedication to native plant conservation in South Florida remains unparalleled. We also have one of the world’s greatest living collection of palms and cycads. This year we will reach over 100,000 students with our Fairchild Challenge, Explorer and Discovery programs and more than 3,000 adults will participate in our Life Long Learning education courses.
With 45,000 members and over 1,200 volunteers, Fairchild plays many roles, including museum, laboratory, learning center and conservation research facility, but its greatest role is preserving biodiversity, which the garden’s scientists, staff and volunteers all contribute to on a daily basis. […]
Our History
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden gets its name from one of the most famous plant explorers in history, David Fairchild (1869-1954). Fairchild was known for traveling the world in search of useful plants, but he was also an educator and a renowned scientist. At the age of 22, he created the Section of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction of the United States Department of Agriculture, and for the next 37 years, he traveled the world in search of plants of potential use to the American people. Fairchild visited every continent in the world (except Antarctica) and brought back hundreds of important plants, including mangos, alfalfa, nectarines, dates, cotton, bamboos and the flowering cherry trees that grace Washington D.C.
Dr. Fairchild retired to Miami in 1935 and joined a group of passionate plant collectors and horticulturists, including retired accountant Col. Robert H. Montgomery, environmentalist Marjory Stoneman Douglas, County Commissioner Charles Crandon and landscape architect William Lyman Phillips. This core group worked tirelessly to bring the idea of a one of a kind botanic garden to life, and in 1938, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden opened its 83 acres to the public for the first time.
Ready for some wonderful flowers and trees?
Very beautiful, a really pleasant experience.
But, there’s more to see in Fairchild than just flowers and trees. More on this in the following posts…