McKee Botanical Garden

They could use a little more fish and all of their Pond. The property is very beautiful lots of rivers and ponds. Lots of flowing plants, water lilly, pipe vine, natives, palms, orchids and more. It’s a great place to waste an hour or two.

Lovely small gem of a botanical gardens. We enjoyed our 1.5−2 hour visit. As everyone has mentioned, it is tiny — but it has wonderful plants I have not seen in other parts of Florida. The kids loved the sausage tree and the big spiders by the stream; the orchids and lily ponds were beautiful. We all enjoyed walking around, finding our favorite area and then sharing it with the rest of the family. The nice thing about the small size is that you can walk around 2 – 3 times and see things you missed earlier — somewhat like a treasure hunt!
Besides the admission window clerk (not a friendly lady) the rest of the staff was nice and helpful. One young gardener, in particular, loved interacting with the visitors and telling us about the plants and the trees. She formerly lived in Hawaii and we enjoyed her comparisons of the plants from both tropical areas.
If I lived nearby, I could easily see buying an annual membership and coming here to read a book while enjoying the lush beauty of the gardens.
There is one bench (very comfortable!) in particular that everyone would love — it is a metal sculpture with communication tubes on each side of the bench — you whisper in one end and the kids whisper back on the other — lots of fun.
The food in the café was good (though not cheap) with vegetarian options. The café is another pleasant spot to sit and talk.

A hidden gem that is a historical landmark needing more attention. They were recently renovated and looks absolutely gorgeous and lush!

My wife and I went to this garden on 09/​06/​2015. It is a fairly small garden (only about 18 acres), but has lots of water lilies in bloom as well as other plants, and had many great photo opportunities. There is a total of about a mile of trails, and we found it to be an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours in the early afternoon. The café was closed during our visit and there were not many people there, as it was their low season. Overall, a very nice little garden.

Jaw dropping scenery. Beautiful nature. Huge. My husband and I only did HALF of this place but we saw so much already! Even has stuff for kids and a chic little gift shop.

We visited the garden with a toddler in a stroller and grandparents and everyone enjoyed the trees, plants, and sunshine. The LEGO art special exhibit was neat. We also saw a watersnake!

Took my parents to McKee’s was a surprising and enjoyable piece of nature. The gardens were early to find and the Lego exhibit was and added bonus. Great Sunday afternoon outing.

Mckee botanical gardens is my favorite place to go to photograph waterlilies. I have been a member for a couple years now and I love visiting the gardens. The staff are very friendly and they keep the gardens looking nice. My husband just became a member as well and we love to take our cameras and explore the gardens.

Very pretty gardens! Like a few others have mentioned, it’s not very large and not the most floral botanical garden but this is Florida… it can be a struggle getting anything flowery to grow here. We paid $ 10 each, the café was closed but no big deal as we’d already eaten.
My husband was thrilled to see a few snakes and I loved the little miniature fairy houses. We spent about an hour walking around, that’s more than enough time to see the entire area. Lovely staff also.

Nice way to spend an afternoon. Admission is $ 12 for adults, which did seem a bit much. Not many flowers, but a lot of cool trees and bushes. We didnt try the café

Good garden! Not big, but beautiful and has a lot of ponds with water lilys. For people, who lives near its a good place for walk. Price for adult is 7,5 $, that is not so cheap, i think. For kids has an interesting slim book for color, for learning who is who in the garden:)

I was shown today that some people are still just racist and cant hide «The Ugly Truth» with makeup or even a mask. I was about to begin a photo-​shoot, when I approached the ticket booth of McKee Botanical Gardens in Vero Beach Fl. I don’t even know how to put into words how my first transaction took place but I was very professional on my end and ask for the 3 tickets for myself, my assistant and my model. I was in mid sentence when Gail Galbraith «Gift Shop Manager» … cut me off to ask if I was a professional photographer and if we were going to change clothes in the restroom since we had a large bag with a gown in it and another for my camera gear. I said «yes if that’s okay» she proceeded to shove a piece of paper at me and point out that if I indeed was a photographer that I needed to pay the $ 100.00 fee for the year and R E A D the rules. Well her tone was a bit sharp to say the least and I tried real hard not to let her get to me even explaining that I didn’t know and I would be aware of it going forward. I asked if my model should change in the car, she and the other old battlelax sitting at the front kept on and on about nothing but charged my card so I figured I was go to go? The battlelax even told me where the bathroom was and I said thank you to both her and the other rude woman. Well we were in the restroom all of 3 minutes when Gale Galbraith… (wait) «Gift Shop Manager» barged in and shouted «THIS IS WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT, YOU CAN NOT CHANGE IN HERE!!! I AM GOING TO REFUND YOUR MONEY AND I WANT YOU OUT NOW!!!, OUT NOW!!! GET YOUR STUFF AND GET OFF OF THE PROPERTY NOW, I MEAN IT I WANT YOU OUTTA HERE» Well those of you who know me know that I was like Oprah Winfrey in The Color Purple before she knocked the shit out of Harpo… we were all taken aback by her approach in handling what I saw as a breakdown in communication. She ran back to the front to get cash and put it in my face. I didn’t take it because I wanted an explanation of what I did wrong to get put out of the park? She continued to be as nasty as anyone I have ever encountered in my entire life and I could only see this woman had such strong rage towards me and I hadn’t done anything to her? I wont repeat everything she said as I don’t want to start a war but… use your imagination… I will tell you that it was a degrading, demoralizing and humiliating experience as a Black woman to have this older Caucasian woman treating me like I was doing something illegal in the restroom.
My assistant took the money and walked away when this very brave or stupid woman got in my face??? Okay so you’re waiting for it so here it comes. Brooklyn finally came out and I called her a nasty witch and that’s nice for what I really wanted to call her so after I told her I would never come back there and I would tell anybody who would listen to never go there she shouted «FINE WE DON’T WANT YOUR KIND HERE» That’s when I changed an alphabet from W to B and I called her a «Nasty Fuckin Bitch» She then asked me if I wanted to take this out in the parking lot? well where I come from thems fightin wordz… I stood right where I was, checked my wrist for a hair tie, because I didn’t feel like having this B pulling on my hair. I didn’t have a hair tie so I gathered my hair back with one hand, the other was full. and when she saw that I was about to drop what was in my hand she changed her tune to «I’M GOING TO CALL THE COPS» my reply was «call them please, I will dial it for you» In the back of my head I’m thinking I have a model waiting on me, a shoot to do and I really don’t feel like explaining my bloody knuckles to the cops. Besides that, me and handcuffs are only friends in more loving situations ;)
Gail Galbraith «Gift Shop Manager» walked away still yelling at me to get off the property. She never said one single word to or even looked at my Caucasian model. However what she didn’t know is that my model is actually close friends of the owners of Mc’Kee Botanical Gardens. So I don’t know if there is a lesson here for you or even me but Gail Galbraith «Gift Shop Manager» will learn that you should never judge a book by it’s cover. Now I have two more letters to right TO HER BOSS and VERO BEACH NEWS WEEKLY!!! I want to know when the new rules of «my kind» not being wanted at the gardens was put into effect?
Needless to say, we went to a public park and got some AWESOME shots!!! Mission Accomplished! TRUTH…

I went here as a stop on one of my (in)famous photography road trips a few weeks ago. I’m seeing some bad reviews here, and felt the need to chime in.
First, if you bother to look at the satellite/​aerial view of the place on Google, you can see that it isn’t very big, so that shouldn’t be a shock to anyone who’s done even a little recon. This isn’t New York, so going in with the expectation that it’s like anything you’d see there is unrealistic.
Second, I went in the winter, and there was plenty of beautiful foliage in bloom, and the grounds looked to be well kept.
Like I said, I went for photography, and got a lot of beautiful shots. They had a lot of glass art there — not sure if that’s permanent or a temporary exhibit.
Is it worth the drive from Orlando? Maybe not if that’s all you’re going to Vero for, but it was worth a stop after my trip the Brevard Zoo. I’d say that Leu Gardens here in Orlando is bigger and better, but for Vero beach, it isn’t bad at all. If you’re in the area, I say stop by and pay it a visit. If you live nearby, it might be worth the membership just to have a quiet, lovely place to sit and meditate when you need to escape from the world.
We’re all entitled to our opinions, but I have to say that my experience here wasn’t as bad as others’.

This place is a far cry from the New York Botanical Gardens and other botanical gardens I have been to. It’s very small, and it doesn’t seem like it’s particularly well-​maintained or well-​curated. The maps are confusing and very few of the plants are even labeled. Honestly, you can find just as exciting flora and fauna by taking a walk down any street in Vero — for free.
This place might be fun if you have a lot of cash to drop on a wedding venue or other special event.

A true disappointment, BUT it may be the time of year we chose to go. We went in early January, but the weather had been in the high 70’s. Still, most plants were dead and brown. The grounds are sadly not kept up, it was like walking through a wild forest, but not in a beautiful way. Hardly any of the plants were labeled with information, so you didn’t even know what you were looking at. We went during the Dr. Seuss exhibit, which we were very excited about but, again, disappointed. The exhibit consisted of only 5 bronze Dr. Seuss statues spread out amongst the trails. They really could have done so much more to transform the property, making it colorful and whimsical. On the other hand, the café is YUMMY! But, a little pricey for what it is — $ 9 – 11 sandwiches & salads?! The smoked salmon tea sandwiches were delish, and so was the turkey club.