McKee Turns 25 This Fall, and the Baby Animals Arrive Before the Lights Do

On Saturday, October 10, a baby giraffe, a cheetah, an elephant, a hippo, a bear, a zebra, an arctic fox and a giant tortoise go into the paths at McKee Botanical Garden. They are bronze sculptures by Gillie & Marc, and they stay through December 2027. Most people will first see them on a winter night with lanterns all around them. On November 29 they become part of Jungle Lights.

That leaves seven weeks when the same animals stand in plain daylight under the garden's century-old trees, and those weeks hold most of McKee's anniversary year. The actual 25th anniversary date, the launch of the garden's commemorative book and both fall Rhythm in Bloom evenings all fall between the opening and the first night of the lights. For anyone on the mainland near Vero Beach Country Club, 350 US Highway 1 is a short drive, and this is the stretch of the season to use it.

What Goes Onto the Paths on October 10

McKee calls the exhibit "Return of the Wild." Its description puts the anniversary at the center:

"As McKee celebrates the 25th anniversary of its reopening, we honor not only the preservation of a historic cultural landscape, but the Garden's enduring role as a beacon of conservation and education."

The garden says the sculptures will be placed "along the Garden's winding paths, set among century-old state champion trees, rare waterlilies, and award-winning living collections." Gillie & Marc are known for public art that draws attention to the planet's most endangered animals. McKee ties that theme to its own history of rescue and renewal: the garden was saved, and these species can be too.

Vero News describes the pieces as lifelike bronze sculptures of critically endangered newborn animals and calls the installation "Wild About Babies." McKee's own pages use "Return of the Wild" for both the exhibit and this year's Jungle Lights theme, so look for that name on garden signs and tickets. Neither source gives a total count of sculptures or a map of where each one stands. Part of a daylight visit is simply finding them.

Members get the first evening. Glow Wild at McKee is a members-only event on October 10, from 7:30 to 9 p.m.

Seven Weeks of Daylight

In daylight the sculptures share the paths with the trees, the waterlilies and the Royal Palm Grove. After November 29 they share them with Jungle Lights' handcrafted lanterns of Amazonian plants and animals. The bronzes are the same either way. Only daylight shows them in the setting they were placed in.

Regular hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The last ticket is sold at 4 p.m. The garden is closed Mondays and major holidays. Daily admission is $25 for adults and $15 for youth. Children under 3 get in free, and military members and first responders with ID pay $15. Members enter free.

Two evenings in this stretch open the garden after hours for live music. Rhythm in Bloom brings the Kat Woods Trio on Friday, October 23, and Rhythm & Sky on Friday, November 13. Both run 6 to 8 p.m. Members attend free, and non-member tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children. Registration is required. A few practical details come straight from McKee: bring your own lawn chairs or blankets because the garden provides no seating, leave outside food and drinks at home, and buy food and drinks at the Garden Café.

Both concerts fall after the sculptures arrive and before the lanterns go up. They are the only fall evenings in the garden this year with the new animals in place and no holiday display around them.

November 18 Is the Real Anniversary

"25 years" refers to a specific date. McKee's history page says the garden's formal dedication as McKee Botanical Garden took place on November 18, 2001. That puts the anniversary on Wednesday, November 18, 2026, partway through the daylight window.

How it got to that date:

1. 1922. Arthur McKee and Waldo Sexton buy an 80-acre hammock.
2. 1926. The Royal Park Exotic Nursery begins on the property.
3. 1932. McKee Jungle Gardens opens as a visitor attraction.
4. 1976. The attraction closes, the land is sold to condominium developers, and all but 18 acres are developed.
5. 1994. Community members, working with The Trust for Public Land, start a campaign to buy the remaining acreage.
6. November 18, 2001. The garden is formally dedicated as McKee Botanical Garden.

That history explains the choice of exhibit. A garden that came back from 18 remaining acres is placing endangered newborn animals along its paths in the year it marks its own return.

The orchids follow the same arc. Arthur McKee's orchid collection in Cleveland was at one point one of the largest private orchid collections in the United States, and many of those plants came to Vero in the 1930s. After the 1976 closure, many of the historic orchids went elsewhere. Some were later bequeathed back, and the collection now holds more than 2,000 rare, historic and native species. This June and July, McKee received four American Orchid Society awards. One went to a Cattleya measuresiana named 'McKee Botanical Garden,' which earned an Award of Merit. The garden also takes part in the Million Orchid Project, based at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens in Miami, which aims to reestablish native orchids across Florida.

The second annual Rare and Exotic Orchid Exhibition and Sale, held with the Vero Beach Orchid Society, drew thousands of visitors over two days. The judged orchids were displayed on the "World's Largest Mahogany Table" in the Hall of Giants.

The Book Arrives the Same Week

The anniversary has its own book, The Jungle Garden: Preserving a Tropical Landscape, with text by Heather O'Shea. One McKee page gives the title as "A Jungle Garden." The book's own page and Vero News' coverage of the book both use "The Jungle Garden."

The book had a soft launch at the orchid show and is sold in the McKee gift shop and on the McKee and Rizzoli websites. Two November events surround the anniversary date:

• Thursday, November 12: a launch event at the Vero Beach Book Center.
• Saturday, November 14, 3 to 4:30 p.m.: "Inside the Jungle Garden," a talk and book signing with O'Shea at McKee. It's free for members and free with garden admission for non-members.

McKee says the talk covers "the people, plants, history, and vision that shaped this remarkable tropical landscape." If you attend, you can walk out of the talk and find the bronze animals on the same paths in late-afternoon light.

Then the Lanterns Go Up

Jungle Lights opens November 29 and runs 31 nights, 6 to 9 p.m., through January 2. It is closed December 24, 25 and 31 and January 1. This year's show pairs the Amazonia lanterns with Gillie & Marc's endangered African baby animals. It also adds a 30-foot Christmas tree in red and white lights, Candy Cane Lane, a 15-foot living tree made from 375 bromeliads and orchids, the Great Reindeer Hall with a 16-foot Rudolph, and a large-scale model train running through a Swiss Alpine Village.

As of this week, McKee has not posted 2026 Jungle Lights ticket prices or timed-entry slots. The ticket link on the event page was not working when checked. An older Jungle Lights page on the site still shows earlier rates. Wait for the 2026 listing before planning around a price.

Once the lanterns are lit, the bronzes are one part of a large holiday show. McKee will keep them on display through December 2027, so they will be there in daylight again in the new year.

The Fall at McKee, by Date

Living near Vero Beach Country Club means places like McKee are part of your regular week, not a trip you plan once a year. Alexis Miller keeps track of fall calendars like this one, and of the mainland streets a few minutes from these paths. Schedule Your Personalized Vero Beach Consultation to talk through which parts of Vero you'd want close by every day.