Since 2009, Naples Botanical Garden has set the region’s standard for horticultural excellence with landscape designs. We create landscapes that are aesthetically beautiful, ecologically sound, and distinctly tropical.
Now, the Garden is offering its vast knowledge of plants and growing practices, ecology and resilience, design and maintenance to a growing network of regional partners.
We partner with:
- Community groups
- Industry associations
- Landscape professionals
- Designers
- Property owners
- Homeowner associations
- Local governments that want use the power of plants for the community’s good
The Garden serves as a 170-acre demonstration site. We showcase unique plant combinations, distinct specimens, right plant/right place planting principles, and the native plants upon which our ecosystems are built. It is also a living laboratory where our team trials and observes plant behavior—knowledge that guides our work both on and off our campus.
These fee-based services support the Garden’s mission in conserving subtropical and tropical plants and habitats, developing cutting-edge horticultural practices, providing environmental education for all ages, and cultivating a welcoming space where visitors can connect with each other and the natural world.
Design Consulting
Garden experts collaborate on large-scale projects that re-imagine existing landscapes or create new ones from the ground up. Our team offers clients access to nursery databases and our vetted network of specialty growers, allowing them to source unique plants grown to the highest standards.
In Southwest Florida, the Garden’s design services include:
- Streetscapes
- Medians
- Stormwater ponds
- Parks
- Other public spaces
We guide plant selections that are long-lasting, low-maintenance, biodiverse, environmentally friendly, and designed to withstand current growing conditions, as well as those predicted in the future. Most critically, we look for beauty, recognizing that landscapes are an expression of a community’s identity.
Beyond our climate zone, our team helps botanical gardens, arboreta, universities, and other institutions create stunning tropical displays in climate-controlled conservatories, bringing the mystique of the tropics to audiences everywhere.
Landscape Solutions
Garden experts write customized maintenance plans designed to minimize labor and ensure long-term success. The team also provides its clients with answers to common landscape questions—as well as troubleshoot scenarios they have not even considered. Garden guidelines can save significant money by installing the plants best suited to the site in the conditions where they are most likely to thrive.
Our team can address matters such as:
- Why trees are failing to thrive
- How to reduce fertilizer use
- Choosing the right plants for your site’s growing conditions
- How to lessen pesticide and herbicide use
- How and when to supplement soil
- How to prune plants for optimal health
Nature-Based Solutions
The Garden’s Center for Nature-Based Solutions investigates the use of plants to address common environmental challenges.
Our team can offer guidance on:
- Coastal restoration projects
- Prescribed fire in urban settings
- Preserves
- Creating rain gardens and swales to capture and filter stormwater
- Planting stormwater ponds to improve water quality
- Incorporating undeveloped land and native plants into community planning for flood control
- Using plants for erosion control
- Invasive Species Management Plans
Our Team
Brian Galligan
Vice President of Landscape Innovation
Chad Washburn
Vice President Science & Conservation
Brian Galligan is among the founding staff members of Naples Botanical Garden and shaped the 170-acre campus into one of the region’s most-visited attractions. He is an internationally recognized leader in the collection and conservation of tropical and subtropical plants and is frequently tapped to share his expertise. Brian joined the team in 2007 as Horticulture Manager, moving into the executive role of Vice President of Horticulture. He influenced the original design, plant selection, and creation of all display gardens. He currently serves in his new role of Vice President of Landscape Innovation, overseeing a team of more than 30, who are responsible for designing and maintaining the cultivated gardens and nursery operations. Brian played a pivotal role in the design and creation of the Evenstad Horticulture Campus, a multimillion endeavor that will launch the Garden into its next era and enable it to expand its work throughout Southwest Florida.
Brian twice oversaw the restoration of the Garden after Hurricane Irma in 2017 and Hurricane Ian in 2022. He has led extensive collection trips and collaborated with botanical gardens and horticulturists around the world. He most recently guided a complicated tree-moving project on Rodrigues Island near Mauritius in East Africa to save five historic trees, the last of their kind.
Brian’s previous horticultural experience includes multimillion-dollar landscape maintenance and installation contracts for high-end facilities and communities in Southwest Florida. He also maintains his personal farm with vast tropical fruit and ornamental collections with an emphasis on evaluations and applications for home and commercial use. Brian has a Bachelor of Science degree in Horticulture from Auburn University with an emphasis on landscape design. Brian is a 2020 Leadership Collier graduate and was named to the Gulfshore Business 40 Under 40 list in 2014.
Chad Washburn is the Vice President of Science & Conservation at Naples Botanical Garden and leads the organization’s Center for Nature-Based Solutions. He is one of the Garden’s founding staff members, overseeing the extensive restoration and management of more than 90 acres of marsh, mangrove, pineland, and scrub habitats, before turning his attention to developing plant conservation strategies in the Garden and community.
Chad leads the Conservation and Natural Resources team, focusing on projects that ensure the long-term survival of the flora and ecosystems of South Florida and the Caribbean region. These efforts include natural resource management, seed banking, conservation plant collections development, threat assessments, restoration and resiliency projects, and capacity building in the region. Throughout his time at the Garden, he has led efforts to address the region’s most pressing challenges through nature-based solutions, including landscape-scale restoration of coastal beach dune plant communities, development of resilient urban forests, and stormwater management.
Chad acts as a convener for regional and international plant conservation efforts. Each month, he brings together a community of scientists and practitioners from across Southwest Florida for monthly informal conversations to encourage collaborative problem solving and resource sharing. He also leads a community of more than 250 botanical gardens from the Caribbean and Central America working to achieve global plant conservation strategy goals. Chad is a Chanticleer Scholar through Pennsylvania’s renowned Chanticleer Garden, a courtesy faculty member at Florida Gulf Coast University, a graduate of Leadership Collier (2018), and recipient of the American Public Gardens Association’s Professional Citation, honoring significant achievements in public horticulture.
The Garden’s leadership extends well beyond its 170-acre campus. Projects and partnerships include:
- A novel beach dune restoration project in Collier County.
- A tropical conservatory at Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha, Nebraska.
- A tree planting in Everglades City focused on salt- and flood-tolerant species.
- Ongoing collaborative research projects with Florida Gulf Coast University, focused on coastal resilience and climate adaptation.
- Regional leadership in planning and executing prescribed fires in urban settings.
- Global leadership as the Secretariat of the Caribbean and Central American Botanic Gardens Network.
