Dr. George Wilder is a Botanist, Professor and our Herbarium Curator here at the Garden. We are extremely lucky to have him, especially since he shares his knowledge during our bimonthly staff meetings with his amazing and sometimes humorous presentations. We thought it was time to share these reports with our readers. Enjoy!

On Friday, February 17th, the Garden hosted the Inaugural Garden Party to celebrate the opening of the two-month ZimSculpt exhibition.

The evening began with a dramatic entrance where guests were greeted by African drummers. Following this was a stroll through the Garden where guests enjoyed the sculptures placed throughout the Asian,  Florida and Brazilian gardens, just to name a few. During there evening walk, guests viewed an on-site carving demonstration by Patrick Sephani while enjoying cocktails and hors' d’oeuvres.

The ZimSculpt stone sculpture exhibit is making a big impression on our visitors since its debut at our First Annual Garden Party on Friday, February 17, 2011.

The exhibit features more than 100 stone carvings arranged throughout the cultivated gardens. Not only are the stone sculptures wonderful to look at, but also serve to educate visitors on the cultural heritage of Zimbabwe. Themes of family, nature and spirituality clearly inspire the creativity of these magnificent stone carvings.

We have been receiving a number of calls and emails about the photos that were taken during our Night Lights 2011 Celebration by Luminaire Foto.

You may remember picking up some prop pair of glasses or faux mustache and posing for a shot or two in the Lea Asian Garden during our holiday season event. Did you ever check out the pictures and see how they came out?

Many beautiful migratory birds are still with us in Southwest Florida, but the January Second Saturday Migration Celebration has flown away to make room for another migration -- the Gnomes, who will be returning to the Children’s Garden February 11, 2012!