The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation envisions a world in which all people have equal opportunity to fulfill their potential and succeed in life. The Foundation reflects the legacy of its namesake, the late Sarasota-area philanthropist who made a lasting impact on numerous entities and charitable endeavors.

Selby Gardens is now a prominent part of the list thanks to the creation of the Virginia B. Toulmin Leadership Scholarship. The scholarship will provide a pathway for successful female leadership in the business and nonprofit world by providing mentorship, opportunities to observe leadership in action, and financial support to high-achieving juniors or seniors pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Sarasota, Manatee or Charlotte counties and holding a minimum GPA of 3.5.

In addition, the scholarship will be awarded in honor and partnership with a local female leader in the Sarasota community – and that inaugural distinction has been bestowed on Selby Gardens President and CEO Jennifer Rominiecki, who will serve as the scholarship’s first mentor.

“Mentorship is vital to the success of future leaders. I am honored to be the inaugural mentor for the Virginia B. Toulmin Leadership Scholarship and to be presented with the opportunity to guide, motivate, and inspire, women seeking careers in the business and non-profit sector,” said President and CEO of Selby Gardens, Jennifer O. Rominiecki.

The scholarship will be managed by Selby Gardens with an initial gift of $25,000. The application, developed by Selby Gardens, includes an opportunity for applicants to share their connection with the mission of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.

“Through Virginia’s legacy, we invest in causes that she – and we – believe in and most importantly trust in,” said lead Toulmin Trustee William S. Villafranco. “Selby Gardens is one of those causes.”  Villafranco paints a vivid picture of Toulmin. “Virginia was a strong woman of few words but what she did speak of was honesty and integrity,” he said. “During one of our initial meetings, I will never forget something she shared with me – four elements of trust that are important both individually and collectively: competency, consistency, integrity and compassion. We see those four elements exemplified by Jennifer and her work and could not imagine a better inaugural role model.”

The application deadline is March 24, with three finalists selected in April and the scholarship awarded in May (applied to the 2024-25 academic year).

The 2024-25 scholarship recipient will have a chance to be appointed to Selby Gardens’ Advisory Committee to observe Rominiecki in action, participate with local community, scientific and business leaders, and receive a one-year membership to Selby Gardens.

To apply to the Virginia B. Toulmin Leadership Scholarship click here.

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Learners of all ages are invited to engage with nature using their five senses at “Multi-Sensory Earth Day!,” a free educational event on Saturday, April 22, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Historic Spanish Point campus of Marie Selby Botanical Gardens.

This fun, interactive program is presented by Selby Gardens in partnership with Lighthouse Vision Loss Education Center and the Suncoast Science Center. It is part of Suncoast Remake Learning Days, a 10-day regional festival of free educational events for children and families.

“Our Historic Spanish Point campus will provide a big, beautiful outdoor classroom for this engaging, multisensory learning event,” said Anastasia Sallen, Director of Environmental Education at Selby Gardens. “We want to welcome everyone to explore their appreciation for nature this Earth Day.”

“Multi-Sensory Earth Day!” will offer a variety of learning activities designed to engage participants’ different senses while they experience and learn about the environment. There also will be a make-and-take craft, a plant scavenger hunt, and access to the campus’s Native Butterfly Garden and Butterfly House—the only such butterfly house in the region. The different learning stations are being designed by Selby Gardens’ Education staff in collaboration with staff from the Lighthouse and teen volunteers of the Suncoast Science Center. For more information about “Multi-Sensory Earth Day!,” go here.

No advance registration is required to participate in “Multi-Sensory Earth Day!” Participants may stay after the program to further explore the 30-acre Historic Spanish Point campus.

Suncoast Remake Learning Days is a festival of experiential learning events throughout the region taking place from April 21 to 30. Suncoast Remake Learning Days is presented by the Suncoast Campaign for Grade Level Reading and supported by The Patterson Foundation. To learn about the festival and other local events, visit remakelearningdays.org/suncoast/.

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Dahoon Holly

Hello, EcoFlora participants and inquirers! It’s time for a new EcoQuest.

For the months of September and October, we will be doing something a little different. We usually center our EcoQuests on certain plant families, but for this quest, we’ll be looking for species on the FISC list. If you live in Florida, chances are you have seen some of these species right in your own backyard. 

So, what is the FISC List? It’s the Florida Invasive Species Council’s list of invasive plants. You might be familiar with its old name, FLEPPC (Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council). The name was recently updated to reflect more accurate terminology. Terminology and categorization are crucial when it comes to invasive species. The new FISC list of invasive species is divided into two sections: Category I and Category II.  

Category I plants are the most severe. This is measured by displacement of native species, or by the disruption of a stable native ecosystem.

Category II plants are invasive plants that have not yet disturbed or displaced habitats or species but are reproducing outside of cultivation. These plants have the potential to become Category I plants if left unchecked, so both categories should be treated as a threat.

Currently, there are 165 species on the FISC list. This list is updated every two years to include any newly introduced species and to reclassify the severity of existing invasive species.  

Some of the species we’ll be on the lookout for include the widely known Brazilian Pepper Tree (Schinus terebinthifolius), Caesarweed (Urena lobata), and Rosary Pea (Abrus precatorius). We will also be highlighting some of the “charismatic” invasive species that are commonly found in landscaping and in the Florida plant trade. These include: 

Category I 

• Pink Silk Tree (Albizia julibrissin) 
• Surinam Cherry (Eugenia uniflora) 

Category II 

• Golden Pothos (Epipremnum pinnatum cv. Aureum) 
• Mother of Millions (Kalanchoe x houghtoni)  

Brazilian Pepper flowers

So, why should we care about documenting invasive species? By utilizing apps like iNaturalist, we can help natural land managers track the spread of an invasive plant. By doing so, we are better prepared to stop it from spreading further. Economically, invasive species management is a laborious and expensive endeavor. For example, it costs the state of Florida over $200 million annually.  

One of the best ways to help the fight against invasive species can happen right from your home. By removing known invasive species from your garden and planting native alternatives, you are helping to restore habitat. Plant nurseries throughout the state have a large variety of Florida native plants that look just as nice as, if not better than, their invasive counterparts.

We hope you will join us to learn more about our local ecosystems and how they are being impacted by invasive species. You can find dates, locations, and sign-up information for upcoming Bioblitzes here or by emailing us at ecoflora@selby.org.  

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New York-trained artist Norma Albertha Winter has owned her own studio and gallery, worked as a commissioned artist, and taught countless students of all ages over the course of her career.

But for the past several years, she’s had a new role—site ambassador and artist at the Historic Spanish Point campus, where she shares her artistic skills and deep appreciation of the property while teaching painting, drawing, and sketching techniques.

Winter didn’t really know much about the Historic Spanish Point campus when she first came for a job interview in 2016 arranged by the AARP Foundation in Sarasota. But she quickly realized what a special place it was.

After being hired, Winter soon embarked on a project to paint some of the native plants on-site, putting  her talents on immediate display. “I felt that I was brought here for a reason,” she says.

“THERE WAS A FEELING OF PEACE, THERE WAS A SACRED FEELING ABOUT THIS PLACE. I WAS SO EXCITED THAT I HAD BECOME AWARE OF THIS EDEN.”
– NORMA ALBERTHA WINTER

Winter grew up  in Jamaica and began creating art as a child. In fact, her high school principal would sometimes pull her  out of class to teach drawing to other students. After she made her way to the United States, she  graduated from the American Artists School in New York, and both art and teaching have been at the center of her life ever since.

“To me, we’re all born with gifts,” she says. “And we have to seek ways to use these gifts. To me, teaching has been my dream. And so every day I try to learn more, observe more, and retain more, so I can share with others to help them better their lives. And that way I know that I’m  fulfilling my purpose.”

All artwork shown courtesy of Norma Albertha Winter.

Through that initial project at the Historic Spanish Point campus, Winter created 14 five-foot-by-five-foot botanical paintings done in a form she discovered using acrylics like watercolors on canvas. When the paintings were debuted, attendees wanted to know how Winter achieved that look. Soon after she transitioned to teaching classes at the Historic Spanish Point campus, instructing students about painting, drawing, and sketching.

In her role, Winter—who is also an accomplished public speaker with several Toastmasters awards—enjoys helping her art students develop confidence and learn to truly see what’s in front of them. She watches them as they realize, for example, how varied the leaves are on all the different plants on-site once they begin examining them closely.

“We have so much material to work with here,” she says. “For the students, you have to observe, you have to see what you’re looking at, and you have to retain what you’re looking at so that you can draw in your own interpretation of what you have retained.”

She’s excited to be a part of the team at the Historic Spanish Point campus, a place with a rich past and a bright future that she greatly appreciates as she helps others explore and connect to the natural surroundings on a deeper level.

To sign up for one of Norma Albertha Winter’s art classes visit selby.org. Visit the White Cottage at the Historic Spanish Point campus to view Winter’s original artwork.

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For educators, The Very Hungry Caterpillar is all of these things and more. It, like all of Carle’s work, offers itself as a complement to subjects across the curriculum. By listening to or reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar, young children can learn about and practice colors, numbers, days of the week, new vocabulary words, the differences between fact and fiction, and even nutrition (who can’t relate to the caterpillar’s experience of a tummy ache after a weekend junk food binge?). As the best educational books and experiences do, it teaches something without the kids even realizing they’re learning.

At Selby Gardens, we love the VHC for its elementary life science lessons! It’s not just a delightful story about one little caterpillar; it very neatly introduces the life cycle of butterflies and the process of metamorphosis.  Students in lower elementary grades are studying life cycles, beginning to learn about interdependence, and honing their observation skills to learn about the natural world. The VHC gently introduces these concepts, and when students visit the Gardens, we can then take what we’ve learned from the book and find real life examples in our butterfly garden. It’s really exciting to find all four of these stages of a butterfly amongst the plants, and for the kids to use their new science vocabulary to identify them.

Tracy Calla, Senior Manager, School & Family Programs, reads The Very Hungry Caterpillar to students on a field trip at Selby Gardens

With a focus on literacy as well as science, the VHC is a perfect literary piece to build the skills and confidence of emerging readers. As a staple in so many homes classrooms, the VHC is a book kids may have listened to and recited along with their caregivers and teachers. The novelty of the design of the book itself, the fun story, simple language, and vibrant artwork lends itself to repeated readings. By reciting a familiar story along with an adult, students begin to recognize spelling

patterns, build phonological awareness and can recount things like story structure. Plus, kids are fascinated by butterflies, and books about topics they know and enjoy are great motivators for emerging or reluctant readers.

If you’d like to know more about how we connect science and literacy, check out the next issue of our Tropical Dispatch, in your mailbox soon!

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The field trip centered on Eric Carle’s children’s book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Reading the book and exploring the Gardens provided context to the scientific lessons the literature provided.

“Our goal was to combine the ‘wow-factor’ of being in nature and exploring, with the lessons of the book,” explains Tracy Calla, Senior Manager of School and Family Programs. “In the Gardens we can create a more relaxed learning environment, compared to the pressure they sometimes face inside their classrooms to meet literacy benchmarks.”

Before the field trip, the students brought in baby pictures and discovered that people, as well as other organisms, change as they grow and develop. This lesson was reflected in the development of a caterpillar to a butterfly. Here at the Gardens, there was excitement and awe at seeing dozens of chrysalids hanging inside the butterfly display, along with an array of caterpillars munching on leaves, which allowed the students to see metamorphosis in real life.

“We used the book as a tool for further exploration in the Gardens. The kids became actively involved in scientific discovery using kaleidoscope goggles to see how the butterflies see and magnifying glasses to search for different types of eggs and caterpillars,” shared Tracy. Students became nature investigators, while also touching on sequencing, days of the week, describing details, and counting– all important fundamentals in a kindergarten classroom.

For most of the children, this visit to the Gardens was their first, along with many other firsts such as climbing trees, spotting pelicans, and looking over Sarasota Bay.  From learning the butterfly dance, to investigating leaves around the Garden, students as well as the teachers discovered the excitement that can come from taking the classroom outdoors.  More importantly, each student (more than 450 from six Title 1 schools) took a brand new copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar home with them to add to their personal libraries.

EdExplorations in the Gardens are made possible by the Community Foundation of Sarasota County, whose grant allows teachers to cover the costs of the field trip, with further support from the Suncoast Campaign for Grade-Level Reading—through the generosity of The Patterson Foundation—who sponsors the purchase of the books.

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Be immersed in the plants of the South Pacific that inspired Gauguin’s famous Tahitian scenes at Selby Gardens’ exhibition, Gauguin: Voyage to Paradise.  Inspired by a number of rarely-seen prints on display in the Museum of Botany & the Arts, The Gardens reflect the paradisiacal landscape that Gauguin sought out during his life.

The upcoming Botanical Briefing, Plants of the South Pacific, highlights the plants of Gauguin’s artwork and their cultural significance. Presented by Dr. Warren Wagner of the Smithsonian Institution, the lecture covers the importance of plants in the South Pacific such as coconut, hibiscus, taro, bananas, sugar cane, breadfruit, and the screw pine. Dr. Wagner, a Research Botanist & Curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, will also discuss the immigration of these plants from the Americas by Polynesian settlers, their growth in the South Pacific, and ultimately their importance to the region.

The lecture and admission to the Gardens are also completely free to guests that register for the event, thanks to the generous support of the Florida Humanities Council.

“We are pleased to have the support of the Florida Humanities Council for this lecture and to offer this educational opportunity to further explain the importance of these tropical plants in South Pacific culture,” explains Jeannie Perales, Vice President for Museum Exhibitions, Learning, and Engagement.

Many of the plants seen in Gauguin’s art appear on Selby Gardens’ grounds. Before or after the lecture, guests are invited to Gauguin: Voyage to Paradise.

With the support of the Florida Humanities Council, Selby Gardens offers this lecture free-of-charge. Reservations are required, as seating is limited. Save your seat at s33944.p20.sites.pressdns.com.

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As an opportunity to identify seagrass species and collect data for Sarasota County’s Seagrass Monitoring Programs, staff and volunteers at Selby Gardens took part in the annual bay-wide survey for the third consecutive year.

Seagrass is an excellent indicator of water quality while the grass itself is vital to the bay ecosystem, providing food, habitat, and substrate stabilization.

After a briefing covering what to observe and how to report, the teams ventured out with masks, snorkels, clipboards, and monitoring equipment.

Using a map and GPS coordinates, teams spent 20-30 minutes at each point, observing and compiling data within a 50-foot radius.

Three types of grass, turtle grass (Thalassia testudinum), manatee grass (Syringodium filiforme), and shoal grass (Halodule wrightii), were encountered. Epiphytic and drift algae levels and any marine life observed were recorded.

Seagrass coverage in Sarasota Bay has increased by over 50% since the 1980’s. Hopefully the results from this year will show that positive trend continuing.

As Marie Selby Botanical Gardens overlooks beautiful Sarasota Bay, we are proud to take part in efforts to preserve and protect it, and thank our generous volunteers who make it possible.

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Photo by Karen Arango

It’s always a good time of year to visit Selby Gardens, but come spring, there is definitely an increase in the number of schools planning field trips to our grounds.

School programs at Selby Gardens can be designed for all ages of students, from Kindergarten through high school seniors. The subjects range from the basics (Look at those leaves!) to the more detailed (soil analysis) and everything in between. Tours can be self-guided, or led by experienced staff and volunteers.

This past fall a customized field trip was created for a group of Sarasota area fifth graders thanks to a special collaboration between the Gardens and Ringling College of Art and Design through the YEA (Youth Experiencing Art) Arts program. An overview of the program is shared on the blog of The Patterson Foundation, which promotes partnerships in the community. 

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens is proud to participate in EdExploreSRQ.com. EdExploreSRQ.com was created in partnership with the Sarasota County Schools, the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County, the Science and Environment Council of Sarasota County, and the Patterson Foundation. Selby Gardens’ school programs are made possible by a generous contribution from the Koski Family Foundation. Additional support for serving Title One schools is provided by the Patricia Rederer Memorial Fund as well as the Rhoda S. Safer Memorial Fund. The Division of Cultural Affairs likewise provides funding for school programs.

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On any given Thursday, Lorrie and Gregg Wilkins who can be found at a red cart near the north end of Selby Gardens. As year-round volunteers manning the Gardens’ “Ask Me Cart,” the husband and wife delight in meeting new people and introducing them to some of the plants and trees in the surrounding area.

“I will smile and ask them, ‘Have you seen the Crucifixion Orchids?’,“ Lorrie Wilkins says. “If they haven’t, I’ll take them over and show them.”

The Wilkins are just two of the 600-plus volunteers who logged 62,962 hours of service in 2016 at Selby Gardens. That service translates to about 32 full-time positions.

“Non-profit organizations cannot survive without their passionate volunteers. Marie Selby Botanical Gardens is no exception,” says Vera Neumann-Wood, the Gardens’ volunteer manager. “Volunteers are a fundamental piece of the puzzle. They provide the backbone assistance, commitment, support and energy needed for Selby Gardens to thrive.”

While some volunteers work behind the scenes, providing support in the Administration Building, tending plants in the greenhouses and assisting the botanists who identify and catalog plants, many others are on the front line, tasked with making sure visitors enjoy Selby Gardens.

Gregg Wilkins says he and Lorrie always try to find answers to visitors’ questions.  If someone asks about a plant he isn’t familiar with, he will look it up on the internet. The Wilkins also bring along binoculars so they can point out ospreys, herons and other birds that populate Sarasota Bay.

They try to go the extra mile to provide the best customer service. For example, they encountered one family from Germany with limited English skills. The Wilkins called a German-speaking friend who served as a translator so they could answer the visitors’ questions.

The Wilkins, who are avid gardeners, say the rewards of their volunteer work include deepening their knowledge of plants and gardening, drawing on the expertise of the professional botanists and horticulturalists on staff,  meeting people from around the world and simply spending time in an ever-changing environment of beautiful plants and flowers.

Another volunteer, Mary Powers, adds a spiritual dimension to the visitors’ experience. A former environmental education teacher and a three-time cancer survivor, she combines her passion for conservation with her belief that the Gardens bring healing, hope and renewal, and she imparts both to the guests who join her weekly 30-minute Walk and Talk tours. Powers’ tour includes a discussion of the Gardens’ aesthetics, the scientific aspects of Selby Gardens’ work and the spiritual value of communing with nature.

“That half hour is so important to them getting a full appreciation for the Gardens,” she says. “My main goal is to get them interested in and further their education in rain forest plants and the rainforest itself.”

She also wants visitors to appreciate what she sees as the healing aspects of visiting the Gardens. She tells the story of the Bo Tree of India, the same kind of tree under which Buddha is said to have meditated and attained his enlightenment. In 2001, Selby’s giant Bo was uprooted during a storm, but it was saved by a major staff and community effort.  

“I encourage people to meditate under the Bo tree because 15 years later the tree is doing so well,” Powers says. “It brings me back to what a garden can do for you in terms of your soul and your blood pressure.”

The Wilkins and Powers illustrate what Neumann-Wood describes as the value of volunteers who bring diverse interests and perspectives to the Gardens.

“Volunteers bring a bag full of experiences and diversity so much needed for our organization to shine,” she says. “As their Volunteer Coordinator, I feel grateful and very lucky to be surrounded by so much enthusiasm, knowledge and vigor.”

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