Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden

10/23/2026

🎃🌿 GIVE A SPOOKTACULAR WELCOME TO OUR COMMUNITY PARTNER VILLAGE! 👻💚

It takes a village to make Halloween this SPOOKTACULAR! 🧙‍♀️✨

We’re thrilled to welcome these amazing organizations to our 18th Annual Screamin’ Green Halloween! Our Community Partner Village is filled with wonderful organizations coming together to bring extra fun, treats, and community spirit to the Garden!

🎃 Meet Our Spooktacular Villagers!

👻 Wesley House Family Services
👻 Girl Scout Troop 2200
👻 Mote Marine Laboratory
👻 Dolphin Research Center Training Institute
👻 Centennial Bank
👻 Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
👻 Coral Restoration Foundation
👻 Key West Art & Historical Society
👻 S.O.S. Foundation
👻 Samuel’s House
👻 Reef Relief

🍔🌭 A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO CENTENNIAL BANK!

Year after year, Centennial Bank generously donates and serves up delicious hamburgers and hot dogs for our Halloween celebration! And this year is no different!

🎟️ Every admission includes a food ticket for a FREE hamburger or hot dog, courtesy of Centennial Bank!

💚 A HUGE thank you to all our community partners for helping make this event such a special tradition for our Keys families!

🚨🎟️ LAST CHANCE FOR EARLY BIRD PRICES — TODAY ONLY!

🎃 Early Bird:
$5 per child | $10 per family

👻 At the Door:
$10 per child | $20 per family

💚 Garden Members: FREE!

🎃 SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24 | 10 AM–2 PM
📍 Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden

Come dressed in your Halloween best and enjoy trick-or-treating, spooky crafts, costume contests, our Community Partner Village, and so much more!

🎟️ Grab your Early Bird tickets TODAY!

👉 https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/2026-screamin-green-halloween

📲 Instagram: Link in bio!

10/19/2026

10/15/2026

🎃👻 Calling All Halloween Helpers! 💚🌿

It takes a village to make Screamin’ Green Halloween a spooktacular success, and we need YOU!

We’re looking for volunteers to help bring the Halloween magic to life at our 18th Annual Screamin’ Green Halloween!

🧡 Friday, October 23: Event setup
💜 Saturday, October 24: Trick-or-treating, crafts, costume contest, activities & more!

📸🎥 Love photography or videography? We’re also looking for volunteers to help capture all the Halloween fun! Bring your own camera or smartphone and put your creative skills to work!

Whether you have a few hours to spare or want to join us for both days, we’d love to have you on our Halloween crew! 🎃

💚 A special THANK YOU to our amazing volunteers from last year!

🎁 Want to help in another way? We're also looking for donations of raffle items, candy, and supplies for our children's activities! Every little bit helps us create a fun and memorable Halloween experience for our community.

Whether you can volunteer a few hours, donate an item, or help spread the word, we'd love your support! 🎃

🙌 Ready to volunteer? Register online and select the day(s) and time(s) that work best for you!

🔗 Sign up here:�https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/2026-screamin-green-halloween-sponsors
Or visit the link in our bio!

10/08/2026

What’s that smell? 🍄👃
The flies say five stars. We have questions.

Next up in Frights of the Forest: Death & Decay, meet the stinkhorn, Clathrus crispus.

A surprise “egg,” a red cage, and a scent that gets the flies lining up for lunch. This mushroom has quite a routine and the stink has a purpose. Its visitors help deliver spores to new places. 🪰

Meanwhile, this decomposer helps turn dead plant material into nutrients the ecosystem can use.

Terrible perfume. Useful neighbor.

Swipe to meet the cleanup crew’s most suspicious-looking member. Would you stop for a closer look or keep walking? 👀

📷 Photos via iNaturalist:
© robcurtis305 · CC BY-NC
https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/232194128
© Ryan · CC BY-NC
https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/568902420
© Mermadie · CC BY-NC
https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/707270350
© Kyle Van Houtan · CC BY
https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/403188816
© Troy Lamb · CC BY
https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/633673472

Licenses:
CC BY-NC: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
CC BY: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Photos cropped; text and dark shading added.

10/08/2026

🏴‍☠️ This is your sign to gather your crew…

Last year we got a little shipwrecked at the Garden and we’re ready to do it all over again. 🧜‍♀️🥃🌴

Join us for Pirates & Mermaids: Rum Chase on Saturday, November 21 from 5–9 PM for an adults-only evening of adventure after dark!

🗺️ Adult Scavenger Hunt
🥃 Rum Tasting
🍹 Themed Cocktails, B**r & W**e
🏴‍☠️ Costume Contest + Prizes
🍴 Lite Bites
🌴 And plenty of pirate mischief throughout the Garden

Come in full costume, add a little pirate flair, or just gather your crew and come ready for a good time.

🎟️ Early Bird tickets are $49 through October 31!
Tickets increase to $65 beginning November 1 and will be $75 at the door.

Proceeds support our New Education Building. 💚

📸 Were you part of last year’s crew? We’d love to see your photos! Send them our way or tag us so we can share the fun.

Ready to get shipwrecked? 🏴‍☠️
🔗 RSVP and grab your tickets at the link in bio!

10/04/2026

Our first ghost story has roots. 👻🌿

Introducing Frights of the Forest! This Halloween season, we’re getting to know the plants and animals with strange appearances, surprising abilities, and stories worth sharing.

First up in Ghosts & Spirits: the ghost orchid.

With a bloom like this, it hardly needs an introduction. But behind that ghostly appearance is a plant with a few surprises of its own.

Swipe for a little swamp mystery, some clever roots, and a visitor with a taste for nectar. 🌙

Does it look more like a ghost or a tiny dancer to you? Tell us what you see!
📷 Orchid photos: Adrian de la Paz/stock.adobe.com.
Moth photo: Mac Stone, Figure 3 in Houlihan et al. (2019), Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-49387-4
Licensed under CC BY 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Moth photo cropped; text and dark shading added.

10/02/2026

🎃🏆 Last year’s winners understood the assignment! 👻✨

From creepy and creative to completely original, our Screamin’ Green Halloween Costume Contest is always one of our favorite parts of the day, and we can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with this year! 💚🌿

🎃 The 18th Annual Screamin’ Green Halloween is BACK!�
📅 Saturday, October 24�⏰ 10 AM–2 PM�📍 Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden

Get ready for a fang-tastic day filled with:
🍭 Safe Trick-or-Treating�🎨 Hands-on Crafts & Recycled Art�💚 Community Partner Village�🎁 Raffles, Giveaways & Family Fun�🎭 Costume Contests with prizes�
🍔 Food tickets included with admission for our Burgers & Hot Dog Tent, generously sponsored by Centennial Bank!

👻 Entering the Costume Contest?�Be sure to stop by the Costume Contest Table when you arrive to register your child, choose their category, and pick up their official contest badge!

🏆 This year’s Costume Categories:�🕷️ Most Creepy Costume�👻 Best Group Costume�♻️ Best Recycled Costume — get creative with those recycled materials!

🎟️ EARLY BIRD TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW!�💚 $5 child | $10 family�🌿 Garden Members (& Adults) are FREE!
⏰ Don’t wait! Beginning October 20, tickets increase to $10 child or $20 family.

👉 Get your Early Bird tickets:�https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/2026-screamin-green-halloween
�📲 Link in bio!

Grab those costumes, gather your little ghouls, and join us for candy, costumes, community, and Halloween magic in the Forest! 🌿🎃👻

09/15/2026

🌿 Wellness grows here. 🌿

A little schedule update for our Yoga in the Garden community: there will be no Prime of Life Yoga® class today, September 15.

We’ll be back among the trees later this week! 🧘‍♀️🌱 Check out the September schedule above and save your spot for a morning of movement, mindfulness, and fresh air.

📞 Reserve your spot: 305-304-5635

09/10/2026

Something new is coming to the Forest this year… 💀🌿

For seven years, our scarecrows have taken over the Garden each fall. This year, for our 8th Annual, we’re making a little room for some new friends. 🦴

Introducing SKELETONS to the Forest! 💀

Scarecrows & Skeletons in the Forest is our newly expanded Art Exhibit & Contest, giving you even more ways to get creative. Build a scarecrow, create a skeleton, or dream up an entire scene using recycled, repurposed and natural materials.

And yes… cash prizes are back! 🏆

Teachers & youth group leaders, we’ve added something new for you too! 📚🌿

Turn your group’s entry into a hands-on STREAM learning experience with our FREE STREAM Design Challenge Educational Packet, plus participating school and youth groups receive a FREE field trip to visit the exhibit at the Garden!

A huge thank you to all of the artists, students, families, teachers, businesses and community groups who have brought our Forest to life over the years. 🌿🎨 We can’t wait to see what you create this year!

🌿 On Display: September 25 – November 30
🎨 Registration open through September 24
LINK IN BIO!

Swipe through some of our scarecrow creations from years past… and start imagining what might be hiding in the Forest this year. 👀💀🌿

Let Your Imagination Run Wild!

07/15/2026

🌺 Looking for the perfect plant? We've got you covered!

Stop by our Native Plant Sale this Saturday and every third Saturday from 10 AM–1 PM and discover beautiful Florida native plants, plus composting tips and a fun nature activity for kids.

📍 Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden
5210 College Road

See you in the Garden! 🌿