GARDENS & LANDSCAPES
Sarasota Jungle Gardens
Sarasota County · Gulf Coast
Ten acres of tropical planting open since 1939, one of Florida's oldest surviving attractions, with flamingos loose on the lawn.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
The ground was a swampy banana grove in the 1920s. David Breed Lindsay, a Sarasota newspaperman, bought it in the early 1930s, cut paths through it and planted, and opened it to the public on December 31, 1939. It has been running ever since, which makes it one of the last survivors of the era when a Florida holiday meant a string of roadside gardens. Ten acres hold native red maple, oak and bald cypress mixed with bunya-bunya, Norfolk Island pine and palms from around the world. The flamingos are what people come for: they roam free on the lawn and can be fed by hand, which is not an experience most zoos offer. Daily shows cover reptiles, parrots and other birds, and there are butterflies and small mammals besides. The Allyn family has owned and run it since the early 1970s. It stands on Bay Shore Road with a cafe and shop on site
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