I visited the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida last December. This beautiful little gem stands out for the elegance of its landscape grounds, which unlike most botanical gardens, feels more like a leisure garden and less like a curated plant collection.

They specialize in tropical epiphytes, or plants which grow on other plants yet are non-parasitic. Their largest collection of epiphytes consists of 3,600 bromeliad accessions and 4,900 accessions of orchids. They also house the Orchid Identification center with over 26,000 orchid blooms preserved in glass jar solutions.

Behind all it's charm, it serves as an amazing scientific research institution. Their staff perform continuous expeditions to collect new specimens from the tropics through partnering institutions in Venezuela and Belize.

A must-see for garden lovers!