Almost every seat was filled for the first-ever botanical briefing at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens on August 13.

At “What’s Up, Botany Department?”, visitors could learn about everything from phase two of the complex’s plan for a new building to the botany team’s updates about plant collection and conservation efforts in Florida, as well as in the tropical rainforests of Central and South America.

Jennifer O. Rominiecki, President and CEO of Selby Gardens, explained the progress on building the first hurricane preserve complex in the world, which will open in November 2028.

“We have begun vertical construction and have secured financing needed for this over $60 million project,” Rominiecki said. “More than 98% is privately funded.”

Selby Gardens is also pursuing a trademark on the new conservatory, which will allow it to display almost 100% of its total living collections. Globally, this is the only botanical garden that focuses on epiphytes—plants that live on other plants to obtain better exposure to sunlight—such as orchids, ferns and bromeliads.

“We’re really carrying on a phenomenal tradition of understanding plant diversity and distribution,” said Bruce Holst, Vice President for Botany. “These are plants you won’t see at any other botanical institution.”

The Gardens’ living collection contains 17,070 plants and 12,665 accessions, and over 124,000 specimens live in the Marieb Herbarium.

Selby Gardens also extends conservation to an international level through work in Belize to strengthen botanical collections. Yuley Encarnación-Piñeyro, curator of the Herbarium, says the collection faced serious challenges that threatened its long-term viability with tobacco beetles, silverfish and infrastructure issues.

“Every specimen that was eaten by the insects was part of a last page of Belize’s unique plant history,” Encarnación-Piñeyro said.

Selby Gardens assessed the collection, and in September 2025, a mobilizing recovery group of 10 volunteers—named The Herbarium Warriors—traveled to Belize to mount 2,057 specimens in five days and enter approximately 500 specimens in the database.

“Our volunteers here at the Herbarium make things happen,” Encarnación-Piñeyro said, referring to the over 1,000 volunteers for this project alone. “They’ve been to conferences and they have an amazing turnout with their collection.”

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens: Downtown Sarasota Campus, 1534 Mound St., Sarasota, 941-366-5731, selby.org