McKee Botanical Garden
Eighteen acres preserve tropical trees, streams, ponds, historic stonework, and the revived core of the 1932 McKee Jungle Gardens attraction.
Artwork inspired by A. E. Backus
McKee is compelling not as untouched tropical nature, but as the recovered heart of a once-larger roadside attraction. Its mature specimen plants, stone bridges, streams, and old circulation patterns show how community restoration preserved the character of the 1932 Jungle Gardens while allowing planted collections and native hammock to develop together.
Move slowly enough to see how water and shade organize the garden. Ponds brighten the water lilies, channels shape humidity, and layered trees, palms, understory, and groundcover create distinct microclimates. Because the surviving eighteen acres are compact, retracing the loop in reverse can reveal concealed stonework, shifting reflections, and flowers missed on the first pass.
- Opened
- 1932 as McKee Jungle Gardens
- Surviving core
- Eighteen acres
- Signature
- Water lilies
Quick guide
- Core story
- Look for evidence of restoration from the former Jungle Gardens.
- Best method
- Walk the compact loop twice in opposite directions.
Explore further
- Read the old entrance
- Historic stone and circulation reveal the garden’s roadside-attraction origins.
- Follow the water
- Ponds and streams organize humidity, reflection, and planting.
- Compare canopy layers
- Specimen trees, palms, understory, and groundcover create distinct microclimates.
- Loop twice
- Return in the opposite direction to catch hidden stonework and flowers.
Good to know
The present garden is a preserved portion of the historic attraction, not its full original acreage. That smaller footprint makes surviving structures and mature plant relationships unusually legible.