"New feet within my garden go." The line is Emily Dickinson's, and it's also the title of the exhibition opening November 21 at Historic Spanish Point, the Selby Gardens campus in Osprey. The campus sits at 401 North Tamiami Trail, a short drive down US-41 from The Oaks. From that day through August 29, 2027, Dickinson's nature poems will be placed across the grounds. Illustrations by artist Abby Wright and photographs of pages from Dickinson's own herbarium, her personal collection of pressed plants, will accompany them. Selby Gardens' Artist in Residence Patti Smith narrates the poems.
This is the second winter in a row the campus has opened its season with poetry. Last year it was Robert Louis Stevenson. Two shows make a pattern, and the pattern changes what Historic Spanish Point is for its closest neighbors. The shell middens, Mary's Chapel and the White Cottage stay put. Each November, though, the reason to walk the grounds gets swapped out, and the new one lasts until late summer.
Last Winter Set the Map
Selby's announcement of the Dickinson show calls it a continuation of "the literary theme" that began with the Stevenson exhibition. Robert Louis Stevenson: A Child's Garden of Verses ran November 15, 2025, through August 30, 2026. It used pages photographed from a vintage edition with illustrations by Alexander Dobkin, added interactive elements, and included recordings of Patti Smith reading the poems.
The way that show was installed is the best guide to what's coming. A Sarasota Herald-Tribune photo gallery from opening week showed large poem panels matched to specific places on the campus:
| Stevenson poem | Where it stood on the campus |
|---|---|
| "The Moon" | Mary's Chapel, paired with a moon time-lapse and Smith's reading |
| "The Little Land" | A children's library inside the White Cottage |
| "Where Go the Boats?" | Beside the Lizzie G boat |
| "Foreign Lands" | Near Guptill House |
| "Farewell to the Farm" | The butterfly garden |
| "The Swing" | Along a path |
Each poem was chosen for its spot. A poem about boats sat by a boat, and a poem about the moon sat in a dark chapel with the moon on screen. Selby hasn't published where the Dickinson poems will go, only that they will be "sited throughout" the campus. Neighbors who walked the Stevenson route already know the format: a loop of stops, each one a poem in the place that suits it.
Dickinson Brings Her Own Plants
The new show adds something Stevenson didn't have. Last year the art on the panels came from an illustrated book. This year the panels will include photographs of Dickinson's herbarium, the plants she collected and pressed herself, along with Wright's illustrations. At a botanical garden, that matters. The poems are about nature, the pressed specimens are the plants she actually handled, and the setting is a bayfront garden. Selby describes the result as a "multi-sensory experience," and it credits Patti Smith with the original inspiration.
Smith's connection to the campus started well before this show. Selby's September release on her residency traces it to the 2022 exhibition Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith: Flowers, Poetry, and Light. Her residency was announced at a performance in April 2022. Her October 13 evening dedicated to Dickinson was her eighth visit to Selby Gardens. In January 2026 she also performed at Historic Spanish Point in honor of the Stevenson exhibit. The same release quotes Selby President and CEO Jennifer Rominiecki:
"Her singular voice and extraordinary artistry have a remarkable ability to connect us with poetry, with nature, and with the world around us."
The performances are one-night events, and the October show has already happened. The narration is the part that stays all season. Her voice will run with the poems every day the campus is open until late August 2027.
How the Next Two Months Line Up
Selby's 2026–27 season puts the opening, a preview evening and the holidays close together. The dates below cover the Osprey campus, plus one nearby stop on the Legacy Trail:
- Thursday, November 19, 5–8 p.m. Cocktails at the Cottage fills the White Cottage, Sunken Garden and Pergola and includes a preview of the Dickinson exhibition. Individual tickets are $175, and sponsorships run from $750 to $5,000.
- Saturday, November 21. The exhibition opens to everyone during regular hours, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.
- Wednesday, November 25. Sarasota County runs a free Demonstration Garden Tour at the Osprey Junction Trailhead, 939 E. Bay Street. That's a short trip from the campus for anyone already in a garden mood that week.
- Thursday, November 26. On Thanksgiving Day, five days after the opening, Historic Spanish Point is open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- December 24 and 25. The campus posts 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. hours for Christmas Eve and is closed on Christmas Day.
Selby's big holiday light show, Lights in Bloom, runs December 5, 2026, through January 2, 2027, at the Downtown Sarasota campus, not Historic Spanish Point. That leaves the Osprey campus quieter in December. The poems will be the main thing there.
Inside the historic buildings, the hours are shorter than the grounds. The White Cottage, Mary's Chapel, Window to the Past and the Packing House are listed as open 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Guptill House is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. when a volunteer docent is on hand. If the Dickinson panels follow last year's layout, with poems inside the Chapel and the Cottage, a visit that starts after 4:30 will miss some of them.
What a Season of Visits Costs
Selby's ticketing lists Historic Spanish Point admission at $20 for adults, $12 for ages 5 to 17, and free for children 4 and under. Members named on the card get in free, and their guests pay $12. Selby's calendar says membership covers free admission to both campuses year-round.
Those numbers matter more now that the exhibitions have a schedule. Stevenson ran about nine and a half months. Dickinson runs from November 21 to August 29, a little over nine months. For neighbors who walk the campus repeatedly through the cooler months, as the exhibition changes and the gardens fill in, the cost adds up per visit. Before, an occasional trip was the norm.
The Bay Comes Back in January
In January the campus adds a trip onto the water. Magic, the Historic Spanish Point tour boat, runs 45-minute trips on Little Sarasota Bay from January through May, on Wednesdays and Fridays. Departures are at 11 a.m., with arrival by 10:30, and at 12:15 p.m., with arrival by 11:45. Tickets are $40 for nonmembers, which includes admission, and $30 for members. Each trip carries up to six people. Those times are the tour's regular seasonal schedule. Specific January 2027 dates hadn't been posted for booking yet.
A morning on Magic followed by a walk through the poems fits well together. Last winter's "Where Go the Boats?" stood next to the Lizzie G, a reminder that this campus has always faced the water.
Closer to home, The Oaks Club named Saravanan Appadurai executive chef in June. The club said his menus would focus on local sourcing, sustainable seafood and more casual wellness options. His first full season in the kitchen and Dickinson's opening both arrive this fall.
Historic Spanish Point's new November rhythm is one reason the stretch of US-41 around The Oaks has its own season. When owners near the bay think about timing a sale or a seasonal move, details like this help them choose a date. The Ackerman Group keeps the Osprey calendar in mind when we plan. If you'd like to talk through how this winter fits your plans for a home near The Oaks, we'd be glad to sit down with you.
