Marie Selby Botanical Gardens has placed third in USA Today’s 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards contest for “Best Botanical Garden” in the United States.

Nominees for the award were chosen by a panel of experts, includidng editors from USA TODAY and editors from 10Best.com. Selby Gardens was one of 20 gardens selected for the Best Botanical Gardens Category; public voting narrowed down the list to the final top 10. 

“We want to thank the Sarasota community and supporters of Selby Gardens for voting for us!" Selby Gardens president and CEO Jennifer Romniecki said in a press release announcing the news. "Thanks to you, we can continue to broadly showcase our mission of providing bayfront sanctuaries connecting people with air plants of the world, native nature, and our regional history."

The past few years have seen major growth for Selby Gardens, which is currently celebrating its 50th anniversary season. In 2020, the nonprofit merged with Historic Spanish Point, and this year saw the compleition of Phase One of the expansion of the gardens' downtown campus, which added 188,030 square feet of new facilities and amenities—including a new restaurant that's 100 percent powered by solar energy and features produce grown in its rooftop garden on the menu.