Misha McRae, the executive director of Key West Tropical Forest and Botanical Gardens, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM yesterday morning to talk about what’s going on in the garden.
The garden celebrated its 90th anniversary on February 23.
McRae said, “Not only being the keeper of the trees, but being the Key West Botanical Garden. No small statement in this culture and climate of heads in beds, but we’ve taken it from just being an attraction to premier conservation site that the citizens of Key West can be very proud of. As I say to everyone, every great city has a great botanical garden, and Key West has its own botanical garden that fits that bill.”
The garden actually broke ground during the Great Depression.
McRae said, “That’s the legacy that we hold on to. Back in the 30s, the Great Depression, Key West was bankrupt. President Roosevelt sent his team down here as part of the WPA to create work opportunities. And at that time, we were the biggest attraction in South Florida, to put people back to work and help the economy, and to attract tourists down here. When we broke ground and opened this garden in 1936 we were 55 acres. In fact, it was the entire Stock Island. It took five days to get through this garden. We’ve held on to that legacy, because, yes, we’re still an attraction, and yes, we still employ local people that work for us. But more importantly, we tracked over 25,000 people a year, and we are globally recognized as being a premier conservation site focusing on native flora and fauna of the Florida Keys, Cuba and the Caribbean. And I think we’re one of only maybe 10 gardens in the world that focuses that direction.”
How was the anniversary gala?
McRae said, “We had 135 awesome people show up for our Anniversary Gala. For those that participated, it was definitely spectacular in the aspect and really befitting a nine decades celebration. I thank all of our sponsors. It really took the community together to put this gala on. It was beautiful. It was romantic, as bad as the weather was all week long, that night, it was clear skies, full moon, we couldn’t have been more blessed, not only with Mother Nature, the weather, but being able to celebrate this under the canopy of our tropical forest and with all of these wonderful people. So thank you. Everyone who took their time, invested their money to come and celebrate this awesome, awesome opportunity that it was.”
The 23rd annual Garden Fest Key West is coming up on February 28 from 10am to 4pm.
McRae said, “We call it Garden Fest Key West, the green market place, because we have local vendors that participate. We have live music in the garden courtyard. We have a beer garden for the adults, and we have a children’s science corner for our kids. It’s a great opportunity to come out and actually see our native nursery, which now houses over 220 native species of plants. You want to look for something that fits in your yard, on your patio, or even on your windowsill, we are the place to come and see it, as well as artisan markets. It’s a great day, great adventure, free docent tours, presentations. It’s really a fair celebrating the garden and mother nature and everything native about it. It’s free. We want you to explore. We want you to participate and help out the Botanical Garden along the way.”
Saturday, March 28 will be the annual migration mania and Great Egg Hunt.
McRae said, “It is family friendly. It’s for everybody, every age. But really highly anticipated are those egg hunts. We have three age appropriate egg hunts. We have education booths. We have games for the children. We have food and beverages. We have learning opportunities. We have gaming opportunities, we have egg hunt opportunities, everything for the kids to come out, explore the garden and really enjoy what the season’s about, but underlining the fact that this is migration season and learn a little bit about our feathered and winged butterflies and birds that migrate through this Botanical Garden. We have documented 223 species of birds that migrate through that garden twice a year. Why? Because there’s not that many big, open, wide spaces. And two, we’re the only place south of Florida City that actually has fresh water. And for the migrating birds and butterflies, that’s kind of like us driving down the interstate and we see trucks stop, it’s a place to stop, eat and drink, rest up and then go about your journey.”
How is the new education center coming along?
McRae said, “We’re in the process now of actually costing everything out. The Anniversary Gala was the kickoff for our capital campaign. I implore, I beg, I will come actually sit on your doorstep to put to the community to help us fund this project. We’re very excited about it because, as we just said, we’ve just completed nine decades we want to set ourselves up for the next nine to come, and one of the first steps to that is get our education department out of that old, broken tailor, a trailer that they’ve been working in for so long, and put in a new state of the art visitor Education Center that includes classrooms, includes offices, includes visitor receptions, video, education room. It has everything. The renderings are already there. Reach out to me, let me set up an appointment and show you the plants are incredible. We are fondly calling it the tree house, because it’ll fit right into the garden. You won’t even know there are buildings there, because it’s going to be so organic all the way through, and then actually sets us up for the next 90 years to come. I’m so excited about it. I’m so excited that I’m still part of it, that I can see us going from what it was back in the 90s to what we are now, I’m so blessed and excited to be able to help us into the next two decades and see what it will become.”
For more information, click here: https://www.keywest.garden/