Heather O'Shea Presenting The Jungle Garden

Preserving A Tropical Landscape

Thursday, November 12 at 6PM

Free Event

The Jungle Garden: Preserving a Tropical Landscape is a lavishly illustrated commemorative volume published by Rizzoli in celebration of McKee Botanical Garden’s extraordinary legacy. With a foreword by Julian Fellowes, text by Heather O’Shea, principal photography by Ngoc Minh Ngo, the book traces McKee’s evolution from a Florida wilderness to a world-renowned jungle garden. Across nine evocative chapters—from A Florida Wilderness and The Plant Explorers to The Waterlilies, The Orchids, and Reclaiming a Cultural Landscape—the volume honors the vision, artistry, and horticultural ambition that shaped the Garden. Its publication marks a defining moment in McKee’s Centennial Celebration of its living collections and the 25th anniversary of the Garden’s reopening, affirming McKee’s place as one of Florida’s most significant and enduring cultural landscapes.

About Heather O'Shea

A freelance writer and former teacher and editor in chief of Vero Beach Magazine, Heather has researched and written about the rich history of McKee Botanical Garden for years.  Following undergraduate work in English, Economics and Theology at the University of Notre Dame, Heather earned a Ph.D. in English and an Executive MBA from the University of New Mexico.  Her work has appeared in The Sun, the Daily Good, the Notre Dame Review, Blue Mesa Review, Cold Mountain Review, the Brevity Blog, and Vero Beach Magazine.  The Jungle Garden: Preserving a Tropical Landscape is Heather’s first book.