What happens at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens when one season's show hands off to the next? This December the two run side by side. The Orchid Show 2026 closes on Sunday, December 6, and Lights in Bloom opens one evening earlier, on Saturday, December 5. For two days the downtown campus on South Palm Avenue runs both shows, and they have more in common than the calendar suggests. Both are about what light does inside a garden.
From Harbor Acres the campus is a few minutes north along the bay. That short trip matters more this December than usual, because the hardest part of a Lights in Bloom evening is the parking, not the ticket.
The Orchid Show is already a light show
Selby's fall exhibition this year belongs to Christian Sampson. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune identifies him as a Bradenton native and a graduate of Ringling College of Art and Design. His pieces are made of glass, acrylic and dichroic film. They sit in the Sandor Museum, the gardens and the Display Conservatory, among living orchids and epiphytes. The Herald-Tribune's coverage describes acrylic rings and dichroic panels in the conservatory and a separate installation in the museum foyer.
The dichroic film is the key to the show. David Berry of Selby Gardens explained the effect to WWSB: "It casts color or projects color all over." Sampson told the station the project took "a couple years of dialogue between me and the Selby team."
Because the film projects color, the show depends on the sun. It reads best during the campus's daytime hours, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Admission is $28 for adults and $12 for ages 5 to 17. Members and children 4 and under get in free, and members' guests pay $12. Selby CEO Jennifer Rominiecki told WWSB that the fall orchid show exists to showcase the collection "but at the same time, we want to create different, exciting experiences to always give you a reason to come back."
Then the light source changes
On December 5 the gardens get their light from electricity. Lights in Bloom puts more than two million lights across the gardens and walkways of the downtown campus. Selby calls it a "tropical winter wonderland," with photo spots, activities and entertainment. The event ranked No. 6 in the USA Today 10Best Readers' Choice contest for Best Botanical Garden Holiday Lights.
It runs every night through January 2, 2027, except Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Eve. Early entry starts at 5:30 p.m. and general entry at 6:30 p.m. No one enters after 8 p.m., and the event closes at 9 p.m.
On December 5 and 6, the end of daytime hours and the start of early entry are 30 minutes apart. That makes the opening weekend the one stretch of the season when a single visit can take in Sampson's work in afternoon sun and the holiday lights after dark. The two shows are priced separately.
What the overlap weekend costs and how it runs
| Afternoon: The Orchid Show | Evening: Lights in Bloom | |
|---|---|---|
| Last day / first day | Sunday, December 6 | Saturday, December 5 |
| Hours | 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. | Early entry 5:30 p.m., general 6:30 p.m., closes 9 p.m. |
| Adult admission | $28, free for members | Early: $44, or $39 for members. General: $34, or $29 for members |
| Ages 5 to 17 | $12 | Early: $24. General: $19 |
| Parking in the LEAF garage | Free for daytime visitors | $19 voucher bought in advance, valid 5 to 9 p.m., while supplies last |
| Food | The Green Orchid, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. | The Green Orchid serves dinner 5 to 9 p.m. |
The Green Orchid by Michael's On East is the garden-level restaurant in the LEAF building, which also holds the garage. Its rooftop is an edible garden that grows produce for the kitchen. It is not a dining terrace.
For members, the early-entry gap is worth noticing. A member's daytime visit costs nothing, but Lights in Bloom carries a ticket price for members too, with only children 4 and under admitted free. To get member pricing, log in to a Selby account before you buy.
The garage is the scarcest part of the evening
After dark the campus works differently. For Lights in Bloom, on-site parking is limited to vouchers bought ahead of time, while supplies last. Selby also runs free parking nearby with trolley service to and from the campus, and points to on-street and lot parking a short walk away. The trolley pickup locations change by date.
That is where living a few minutes south pays off. Visitors from farther away plan around a trolley or a voucher. Starting from Harbor Acres, the trip is short enough that a dropoff on South Palm Avenue is a realistic option.
A few ticket rules are worth knowing before the weekend:
- Only tickets bought on Selby's website or at the Welcome Center are valid. Selby strongly encourages buying in advance and cannot guarantee walk-up admission.
- All sales are final. Tickets cannot be transferred or refunded.
- The event runs rain or shine. If hazardous weather cancels an evening, ticket holders get an email by 3 p.m.
For a fuller evening, the Saturday, December 12 all-inclusive night costs $225 per adult and $75 per child ages 5 to 17. It includes 5:30 p.m. entry, on-site parking, a buffet dinner and an open bar in the Event Center. It is the only Lights in Bloom ticket that includes parking.
Why part of the garden is behind a fence
This season, some of the walk through the lights runs alongside a construction zone. Phase Two of Selby's master plan has moved into vertical construction. It will add a hurricane-resilient conservatory complex, an indoor and outdoor Learning Pavilion, and new garden features, including a stone garden, a live oak grove and better walkways. Completion is targeted for November 2028.
Rominiecki described how the campus works in the meantime to Your Observer:
"We have our welcome center. We have our restaurant. All of our amenities are open and the Phase 2 footprint for construction is fenced off and the rest of the gardens are open. The way it is today is the way it will be throughout construction."
That means the layout you see this December is the one to expect for the next two holiday seasons. While the conservatory goes up, the collection of some 20,000 specimens has been moved to an undisclosed location during construction. Under the old setup, only about 5% of the collection fit on display. The new conservatory is designed to show all of it.
The design also changes the end of a street that Harbor Acres residents drive often. Jerry Sparkman of Sweet Sparkman Architecture, the Sarasota firm working on Phase Two with Olin Studio and general contractor Willis Smith, told Your Observer the conservatory is meant to close off the south end of Palm Avenue: "It's like the city ends in the gardens." He also told the paper his family spends a day or two before Christmas walking the gardens every year. Phase Three comes after that. It will restore the campus's two major historic buildings, connect the walking paths and strengthen the seawalls along Sarasota Bay.
The December dates at Selby
- Saturday, December 5: Lights in Bloom opens. Early entry is 5:30 p.m.
- Sunday, December 6: last day of The Orchid Show 2026: Christian Sampson.
- Saturday, December 12: the all-inclusive Lights in Bloom evening.
- December 24, 25 and 31: the public Lights in Bloom event is closed. Selby's season announcement lists a separate New Year's Eve Gala on December 31, with private access to the lights, a seated four-course dinner, dancing and a ballet performance.
- Saturday, January 2, 2027: last night of Lights in Bloom.
- February 7 to May 30, 2027: the next Jean & Alfred Goldstein Exhibition Series runs on the downtown campus.
Living a few minutes from a garden that is rebuilding its bayfront is part of what sets Harbor Acres apart, and it is the kind of detail we pay attention to on behalf of our clients. If you'd like to talk through what this corner of Sarasota offers over the coming seasons, Sarasota Beach To Bay welcomes you to Schedule a Private Consultation with Debra Lichter.
