Work on Butterfly Garden restoration gets underway

By Dana Kampa
| 5:00 a.m. May 24, 2025

Longboat Key
Neighbors

With a flick of a trowel and a few sprinkles of soil, volunteers lent a hand to the Longboat Key Garden Club as it officially began work renovating the hurricane-damaged Butterfly Garden at Bicentennial Garden.

Members collaborated with town experts earlier this month to map out the renovations, and early Monday morning, they set to work planting the new garden.

The plants they added included many familiar pollinator-friendly flowers, like silky deep red milkweed. But the new garden also includes a rainbow of other plants, like orange lantanas, pink pentas, blue porterweeds and red gaillardias.

Cyndi Seamon, vice president of Longboat Key Turtle Watch and one of the volunteers that morning, said they hope to attract the beloved monarch butterflies, like those they release at the Fourth of July celebration of the park, but also other species.

She said members of the public have recently spotted some atala butterflies, also known as coontie hairstreaks. These colorful blue, orange and black butterflies call southern Florida home. Scientists believed the atala butterfly to be extinct from 1937 to 1959, but it has made a small resurgence.

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Volunteers that day said they were happy to assist with the replanting, and they hope this newly revived community garden inspires home gardens to seek out butterfly-friendly plants for their own beds.

Susan Phillips, assistant to the town manager, public information officer and former garden club president, also pointed out the first succulents going into another bed, featuring brilliant blue agave.

The club invited community members to assist at 7:30 a.m. on Friday with a second wave of gardening to finish the Butterfly Garden and succulent beds, and get started on other areas. She said on May 30, volunteers will focus on planting 50 firecracker bushes and 50 sea oxeye daisies.

The club has continuously overseen the Butterfly Garden since establishing it in the 1990s, even after the town took over management of Bicentennial Park.

Susan Phillips and Cyndi Seamon volunteer to help replant the Butterfly Garden at Bicentennial Park early in the morning. Replanting efforts continue this week.

Jim Brown sets to work digging up the soil in the Butterfly Garden.

Pink pentas and other pollinator-friendly flowers fill the new Butterfly Garden.

Cyndi Seamon, vice president of Longboat Key Turtle Watch and one of the volunteers that morning, said they hope to attract a variety of butterfly species.

Orange lantanas give a bright pop of color to the Butterfly Garden central to Bicentennial Park.

Volunteers started planting on May 19, and they plan to continue the next two Fridays.

Volunteers said they hope the Butterfly Garden serves as inspiration for visitors' own home gardens.

The Longboat Key Garden Club has continuously overseen the Butterfly Garden since establishing it in the 1990s.

Carol Wetzig assists Susan Phillips with planting new succulents at Bicentennial Park.

The replanted Butterfly Garden features a swath of pinks, purples, oranges and yellows.

Cyndi Seamon gives a final watering to the Butterfly Garden.

Volunteers also began planting beds for the new succulents at Bicentennial Park, including blue agave.

Beach sunflowers proved especially resilient after the hurricanes.

Cyndi Seamon shows off an example of a beach sunflower. The Longboat Key Garden Club hopes to replant many of the existing native plants at Bicentennial Park.

The succulent garden beds begin to take shape.

author

Dana Kampa

Dana Kampa is the Longboat Key neighbors reporter for the Observer. She first ventured into journalism in her home state of Wisconsin, going on to report community stories everywhere from the snowy mountains of Washington State to the sunny shores of the Caribbean. She has been a writer and photographer for more than a decade, covering what matters most to readers.