The Most Talked About Man at McKee

Ned Whitlock has become the most talked-about man at McKee Botanical Garden this holiday season — remarkable, considering he's 100 years old, entirely AI-generated and, depending on your definition, may or may not be "real." According to Board Member Marion De Vogel, "people are looking for him in the garden and are certain one of our employees is him."

But in fact, Edward "Ned" Whitlock is the fictional face of a very real history. A century ago, Arthur G. McKee dispatched plant explorers deep into the Amazon to collect rare specimens for his Royal Park Exotic Nursery in Vero Beach. These explorers helped to transform native hammock into what would become McKee Jungle Gardens by shipping seeds from six Amazonian countries — Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela — back to Florida.

In lieu of historical records of these plant explorers, Ned, donning a Fedora and boots caked with jungle mud, was invented to tell the stories of these brave, curious and committed individuals and to pay tribute "to the legacy of exploration, discovery, and the enduring bond between nature and those who seek to preserve its beauty."

Those six countries now glow to life in this year's Jungle Lights display, each region illuminated beneath the garden's canopy with rainforest soundscapes and lighted macaws, toucans, flamingos, butterflies, and even an alpaca — all thanks, of course, to the pioneering work of Mr. Whitlock himself. The Hall of Giants has been transformed into the Great Reindeer Hall, Santa appears in the Spanish Kitchen on select nights, and candy-cane paths wind beneath artfully lit palms and towering banyans.

Jungle Lights runs select nights through January 3, 6:00–9:00 p.m. Tickets at mckeegarden.org.

And if you happen to spot Ned prowling the jungle paths, be sure to say hello before you leave.