Marie Selby Botanical Gardens...Tropical Conservatory

This place has been on my radar for a couple of years.  It's about an hour north of us in Sarasota, not a bad drive.  We had planned to go on Monday but of course, the weather was not cooperative, so we decided to go Friday.  Deb and Marc, our friends from Springvale were in town visiting some family, so we rescheduled our visit in order for them to join us. 

We got there around 1:30 and as they were running late, we bought our tickets and started our way around the 7 acres comprising the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, beginning in the Tropical Conservatory.

This area is enclosed,  feels very much like the tropics (not good for the hair) and is filled with orchids, bromeliads and epiphytes.  The display changes regularly as orchids come into bloom.  This room was spectacular! 

Comet orchid

 

 

 

 

 

Blossoms in this room come in all different sizes, the Comet orchid is quite large and some of the others are teeny tiny.

We went through this room alone and again with Deb and Marc before we left.  Amazingly, we saw new things the second time.  I like to call this one the Teeth orchid.

 

And this one, the Hairy orchid.

Just a few more...

 

 

 

More on the rest of our visit next time.

Thanks for stopping by...
;o)