Misha McRae, executive director of the Key West Tropical Forest and Botanical Garden, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been happening at the garden.
Unfortunately the annual Easter egg hunt was canceled due to inclement weather.
McRae said, “We have 5,000 stuffed Easter eggs in my office and I’m not hatching them. Our event got canceled. We actually plan this is our annual children’s event. We are so disappointed about it but we’ve got to make flowers out of the dirt. We know there’s a number of egg hunts that are happening around town and if anyone wants some, please call me at 305-296-1501.”
The community members actually helped stuff all those eggs.
McRae said, “A huge thanks to the Palm Vista residents as well as Poinciana Gardens. Their residents help us every year with stuffing those eggs. They’re the ones that get it done and couldn’t love them more for all of their efforts and their expertise and doing it because they crank them out, too. I’m telling you. I think it would be fair to ask if you want them please come and get them. That’s what we’re going to do. Maybe a donation to the garden and then we’d of course like to have our bins returned back to us but we want to spread the wealth if that’s going to be the call.”
The Tropical Forests and Botanical Gardens has been in existence for more than 88 years and Key West Art in the Garden is coming up.
McRae said, “This is the official call for artists. This is our 14th annual Key West Art in the Garden. It is well anticipated and attended from all over the world. We ask artists to create sculptures made out of recycled, repurposed and reused materials and natural materials as well, that we place around the garden. The public comes to visit not just the garden, but they get a surprise around the corner. We’re asking you go online for the information as well as for the application. It is free to apply. We have April 10 being the deadline for the applications. We’re hoping to have the admissions all installed by April 26 and on April 27, we’re going to do an opening reception where you get to meet the artist and take a tour of the exhibit.”
There’s an area at the garden dedicated to butterflies.
McRae said, “We have two butterfly gardens. We have this historic butterfly garden and then we have the blue butterfly garden. Last September we saw the first of the Atala Hairstreak butterfly thought to be extinct all the way back to 1936, as a matter of fact. We just found one or two. They live on the Coonties. Now they’ve expanded their population to all the Coonties in the botanical garden. I think we have probably 10,000 of these Atalas flying around. They’re very prolific, causing a lot of attention, been in the news. Please come out to see them. They’re very rare. They’re very beautiful. The message that we’re getting out to the public is that our Coonties are not sick. They’re just being fed off of by all of these butterflies.”
Garden guardians help keep the garden going.
McRae said, “This has always been a volunteer organization since 1936. With a staff of eight, which five are part time, you can imagine that we are really understaffed in maintaining that garden. We have called our adult volunteer program, the garden guardians because that’s what they do. Angels of the forest, they’re guardians of the garden itself. They come out and they volunteer on Wednesday, Saturday mornings from 9 to noon, giving their love, expertise and passion into what the garden is about and what they themselves want to represent. It is a great program in order to be outdoors. If you don’t have a yard, you got a 15 acre yard and you get to learn about native plants, how to care for them. You get involved, immersed in everything from the Atala butterflies to the rare bird that was spotted this weekend. It’s just a great opportunity to give back to the community, as well as help the garden grow. Like I said, it reaches out to everyone on Wednesdays and Saturday mornings, from nine to noon, we’d love to have all that we can have.”
The Children’s Companion program happens on Saturday mornings from 9 a.m. to noon.
McRae said, “Where children can come in and get their community service hours while doing the same thing the adults do, learning about conservation, preservation, helping the nursery grow.”
The native plant nursery and native plant sale is another program at the garden.
McRae said, “We’re really proud, the nursery is like a restaurant’s kitchen. That’s where we’re cooking. The native nursery is run by the garden guardians, as it has 192 to different native species of plants, all of them on the threatened endangered species list. Ninety of them are actually part of our endangered plant advisory council, which is our grant funded program to propagate and preserve some really, really imperiled plants. These plants all are put together, we offer it to the public for our monthly plant sale, as well as we offer it to members on Wednesdays and Saturdays if they want plants. The best option you have here in the Keys for planting in your yard is native and we have the natives. Over 2,000 plants are offered and available at the garden from the smallest little plantings up to six and eight foot trees.”
It’s good to be a member of the garden.
McRae said, “Membership has its privileges. You get free access to the garden during operating hours. You get special invitations from me on what’s going out at the garden, you not only get 15% discount at those plant sales, but you also get 15% discount as our gift shop. Keep in mind that we are working hard on building the education new building. We started a capital campaign last year, in order to raise, it’s going to be about a $500,000 project to build a new office, classroom and library for the education department. Our capital campaign needs all the help it can get. So if you’re interested and available, and really into the opportunity that we provide the community, our children, about being outdoors, about learning about nature and about loving and preserving nature, please consider a donation. Please go to our website, click that little donation button. Any and all donations are greatly appreciated and needed.”
The hybrid living lab is a part of the education program.
McRae said, “That’s part of the Living Lab as well. That stemmed out from COVID. Our programs since 2006 have always been hands on. But because of COVID we realized that we needed to still reach out and help the students. Our virtual Living Lab is part of that hybrid now because we do hands on field trips, as well as the virtual classes. You can access them to our website, hit that upper left hand button education and go down. It has literally 30,000 different visits a month on it. It’s used from not only here in the Keys, but it’s also used in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, even up to Washington State. Educators have realized the importance of our program, the value of our curriculum, and it is it’s free to anybody who wants to use it.”
The garden is located at 5210 College Road.
Remember April 10 is the deadline for artists for the Art in the Garden.
For more information, click here: https://www.keywest.garden/