The Naples Botanical Garden celebrated groundbreaking Monday on a $15.5 million growing facility that will be located adjacent to the gardens.
Evenstad Horticulture Campus will grow tropical and subtropical plants that will enhance the 170-acre main campus at 4820 Bayshore Drive in Naples. The garden draws about 250,000 visitors each year. The plants also will help the garden with developing “nature-based environmental solutions.” It will be a regional resource for plant science conservation and education.
Construction, under Manhattan Construction’s management, will take about a year; P.K. Studios Inc. developed the architectural plan.
The Florida Legislature has committed $750,000 in funding, plus $650,000 more in this year’s budget that has yet to be signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. That will be a combined $1.4 million in state funding paid over 12 years.
“We’ve seen how private donors have put tens of millions of dollars into this,” said state Rep. Bob Rommel, who represents Naples and is a proponent of the funding. “The Naples gardens will help teach communities which plants to plant and how to preserve water quality.”
The rest of the funding came from private donations, including an undisclosed but sizable chunk from Grace Evenstad, a board of directors member and key donor with her late husband, Ken Evenstad.
“I love to garden,” Evenstad said of her reason for donating. “It’s been long needed. It’s been especially important after Hurricane Irma hit.”
In 2017, Hurricane Irma devastated the botanical gardens, tearing down large trees that shaded the smaller plants.
Founded in 1993, the garden further took shape in 2000. Since then, it has grown each year to its current form in 2014. It has used a variety of makeshift shaded canopies to protect its growing plants, said Brian Gallagan, vice president of horticulture for the garden.
“We used a massive birdcage,” Gallagan said. “Another shaded house we made with recycled lumber. This is going to be leaps and bounds better than anything we’ve ever had. It’s going to be a state-of-the-art growing facility. We’ll be able to control the elements.”
The facility will be hurricane resistant but also will have the ability to open during favorable weather.
The new greenhouse complex comprises approximately 22,000 square feet: a shade house (10,000 square feet), propagation house (4,300 square feet), greenhouse (a combined 6,400 square feet in two buildings) and a potting house (1,000 square feet).
The garden has about 165 staff members. The garden also has agreements with several Southwest Florida municipalities as advisers, including Collier County, Naples, Marco Island Everglades City and Fort Myers.
“One of the things we’ve discovered and what we know through our research is there are certain trees and plants that can benefit the environment,” said Donna McGinnis, Naples Botanical Garden president and CEO. “They need less fertilizer. They need less irrigation. They’ll take less maintenance, which will save money, but they’re also much more resilient during storm events. We’ll be picking up fewer trees across roadways, so we have the benefit of water-quality improvement and some really beautiful landscaping that is environmentally friendly.
“When we get this complex up and going, we’re going to be able to produce so many more plants.”
