S. Florida visit- your suggestions please

My apologies in advance if this question has been asked and answered before.
I'm a new member and I'm still green in manuvering about the DG sites.

I am interested in visiting nurseries and or places of horticultural interest next month and was hoping that this forum might have some suggestions as to where I might visit .

I am flying into Miami and will be heading down to Key West in mid Feb. So destination points will be from Miami and southbound.

I have already purchased tickets to The Fairchild Botanical Garden and plan to spend much of the day there checking out the garden and the Chihuly show.

Speaking of Chihuly, has anyone seen the show at night ?
Is it worth it to pay another 20 bucks just to enter back into the garden to see this show at night time ?

Thanks.

ps. I am particularly interested in bromeliads, succulents, subtropicals , palms and places with interesting landscape architectural design .
Showrooms, nurseries, Garden Art galleries ect... are all on my 'hit' list.

Thanks ,
Deviant Deziner

I think you should plan in a stop at Homestead where every street corner is a nursery. Most of Florida's tropicals are being grown there and you will be able to see (for instance) an entire nursery dedicated to Bismarck Palms, or Plumeria, etc. Plus the show there is free......... :-))
I bet you can search Homestead nurseries to make a list of Must See places.
Key West has a Garden Club which has their plants in the gardens of a beautiful historic building. I would put that on my list too.
I'm sure others will have more suggestions.

fairchild is a must see especially with chihuly now. vizcaya is a beautiful old italianstyle mansion on the bay that is worth seeing, palm hammock orchid estate is a nursery south of miami that is worth mentioning, and of course the art deco part of south beach is a must see.

Thanks !
much appreciated

I was going to recommend Vizcaya as well. I'd also say that most properties in the Old Town part of Key West are going to be fabulously landscaped. You'll see some really neat hidden gardens all over the place.

"I am particularly interested in bromeliads, succulents, subtropicals , palms and places with interesting landscape architectural design."

Based on what you noted you wanted to see, your best overall bet would be Fairchild. I would plan on a couple of days there, especially in the enclosed pavilions where their rarest plants are. Our local groupl visited Fairchild in December. We posted lots of pictures in the thread below.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/561574/

In Key West I strongly recommend the Key West Butterfly Conservatory. Although small, it's very well done. An excellent selection of plants displayed with clever landscaping. I visit there several times a year. A link with pictures taken there is below.
http://davesgarden.com/place/t/509700/

The Homestead area, just south of Miami, is probably the heart of nursery country in S Florida. A google of nurseries in Homestead FL will give you an abundance of well known nurseries for just about every type of tropical plants grown in S Florida. One of my favorites is Plant Creations where he uses locally cut limestone for a variety of architectural designs and effects. There is also a large orchid nursery just around the corner from Plant creations. The web site at Plant creations shows some of the things he does with limestone and other local materials.
http://www.plantcreations.com/index.html

Art