Last Call Before the Cranes Fly Away

Florigami in the Garden is wrapping up this month, and if you've been putting it off all season, now is the time to get going.

But first, this week, only a few seats remain for McKee aquatics expert Nikki Wojtowicz' Wednesday, May 13 workshop, Oasis in a Pot, a hands-on session on building a Florida native aquatic container garden, essentially a miniature wetland designed as a rest stop for pollinators, dragonflies, and migrating Monarchs.

It runs 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. and advance registration is required. Members $15, non-members $20. This is a perfect complement to how Florigami celebrates our pollinators and how we think about the relationship between art and nature.

Now, back to Florigami. Towering metal cranes, butterflies the size of cars, kinetic birds that catch the breeze along McKee's shaded paths, all cast from original paper folds with such fidelity you forget you're looking at metal. 

The lush foliage and moving water charge the air with negative ions, the same mood-lifting effect you associate with ocean surf or waterfall mist. It registers as easier breathing, a quieter mind, and the sense that one more loop around the pond is time very well spent. Atmospheric therapy of the most luxurious sort, with world-class sculpture thrown in.

McKee is only the third garden in the country to stage the exhibition at this scale. It closes May 24. Go this week.

McKee Botanical Garden is open Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Sunday noon–5 p.m. More at mckeegarden.org or 772-794-0601.