Peace River Botanical & Sculpture Gardens

ABOUT THIS PLACE

The gardens run to 27 acres on the Peace River at Punta Gorda, across both upland and wetland ground. Sculpture is set through the planting rather than gathered in one place, and the signature piece is the Steel Palm, taken from a stone palm frond fossil fifty million years old. The first phase opened in the fall of 2017 with 840 linear feet of boardwalk carrying visitors over the wet ground, and trails on the island were cleared in the fall of 2021. The planting is Florida's own flora, arranged to give something in flower through the whole year, and a nursery on the site propagates plants for sale. There is an observation deck over the river. The gardens sit on the Punta Gorda side of the Peace River, a short drive from the Harborwalk and Fishermen's Village, which puts three of the town's main attractions within a few minutes of one another. The boardwalk is what makes the wet half of the property usable at all: without it most of that ground would be closed for a good part of the year. Because the planting is native, what is in flower changes right through the seasons rather than building to one peak, so the place looks different in February from the way it looks in August