Across Naples Bay from Aqualane Shores, the most lasting part of Naples Botanical Garden's 2026–27 season happens before the season starts. What is Gathered Remains is Miami artist Lauren Shapiro's exhibition built around the Garden's seed bank. It opens January 23, 2027, and some of its cast-glass tiles will come from collages made by participants at two community workshops on November 14 and 15. Anyone who sits at those tables in mid-November will have work in a show that stays up through June 1.
The rest of the Garden's calendar is arranged around that weekend. A long-running installation has just opened, the holiday lights start right after Thanksgiving, and the exhibition goes up in late January. Going through those dates in order shows which ones you can only catch by being here early.
What Participants Make, and Where It Ends Up
The workshop page explains the process. Shapiro introduces participants to how she is making the sculptures. Then each person cuts motifs from special kiln paper and arranges them, working from the textures and shapes of specific plants in the seed bank. The Garden describes that collection as "plant species native to Florida and the Caribbean." After the session, the collages go to Shapiro's studio, where they are fired into cast-glass tiles for the exhibition. Florida Weekly reported the same paper-to-glass process and noted that registration is required in advance.
The logistics:
- Sessions: Saturday, November 14, and Sunday, November 15, both from 10am to noon
- Cost: free for members, $27 for nonmembers, with Garden admission included
- Booking: register online through the Garden
That $27 is exactly what an adult pays for general admission on any day. So a nonmember who books a workshop gets the morning with the artist and the rest of the day in the Garden for the price of a normal visit.
According to the exhibition page, Shapiro's finished pieces will be semi-transparent sculptural screens. They layer botanical textures, archival references and fragments of text from Garden records into the glass, and those layers show up differently as the light and your viewing angle change. Shapiro was born in 1984 and lives and works in Miami. She earned her MFA at the University of Miami in 2016, works in both ceramics and technology, and often partners with scientists on projects about South Florida ecosystems. The Garden credits The Kampong in the exhibition materials. The show is included with admission and free for members.
The seed bank itself usually stays out of sight. The Garden calls it "a lesser-viewed home for diversity, restoration, and preservation." From January 23 through June 1, its contents will be on display in glass, and some of those tiles will have been designed by workshop participants.
The Installation That Will Outlast This Season
If the workshop is the season's earliest event, Ánima Botánica in Fogg Café is its longest. The installation opened October 1, 2026, and the Garden lists it through July 9, 2028. It asks visitors to picture life at one inch tall. Air plants rise overhead and give shade the way a Florida live oak would. Orchid petals hang at head height. A greenhouse frog, in reality "no bigger than a thumbtack," is painted large enough to walk beside.
The artist, Pseudomero, is a Puerto Rican artist based in Naples. He holds a Ph.D. and works as an art activist, historian and educator. The Garden says he spent three years in the Everglades gathering photographs, audio and visual recordings, and sketches that shaped this work. His earlier spotlight exhibition in Kapnick Hall, Historias del aire y del suelo | Stories of Air and Soil, ran July 11 through October 25. The café installation is how his work stays on view at the Garden.
Because Ánima Botánica is in the café and comes with admission, you will see it on most visits for the next two winters, including the ones you make for other reasons.
Before the Workshop: Two Dates in the Next Week
Two things happen before the workshop weekend, and both fall in the coming days.
The Garden's Día de los Muertos Celebration runs Saturday, October 31, and Sunday, November 1, from 10am to 4pm.
Nonmember tickets for Johnsonville Night Lights go on sale Monday, November 2. Member tickets are already available.
Then the workshop Saturday turns into a full day. Music in the Garden is also scheduled for November 14, and the series plays from 2 to 4pm from October through May. A workshop participant can finish the collage at noon, have lunch at Fogg Café alongside Pseudomero's work, and be back outside when the music starts. The next concerts are December 12, January 9 and February 13.
On regular days the Garden opens at 9am and closes at 5pm. Members can come in at 8am.
Night Lights, Priced by the Calendar
Johnsonville Night Lights in the Garden runs November 27, 2026, through January 3, 2027. It is closed December 24, 25 and 31. From November 27 through December 17, hours are 6 to 9pm Sunday through Thursday and 6 to 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays. For December 18 through January 3, the Garden's page currently says "Sunday – Monday, 6 – 10pm." Check the specific night you want with Visitor Services before you plan around those later dates.
Ticket prices depend on two things: whether you are a member, and whether your date falls before or after December 18.
| Ticket | Nov 27 – Dec 17 | Dec 18 – Jan 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Member adult | $18 | $21 |
| Member child, ages 4 to 17 | $9 | $10 |
| Nonmember adult | $36 | $42 |
| Nonmember child, ages 4 to 17 | $18 | $20 |
| Late Night, 7:45pm and later, member adult | $15 | $18 |
| Late Night, 7:45pm and later, nonmember adult | $30 | $36 |
A member adult pays half the nonmember price in either period. For everyone, choosing an evening before December 18 saves a few dollars per ticket. The Late Night price for 7:45pm entry knocks a bit more off, at the cost of a shorter evening.
There are two flexible options. A Premium ticket costs $70 for members and $95 for nonmembers. You pick a night but can arrive at any time during the event, and you can change the date up to two times. A FLEX ticket allows one date change and costs $30 per adult for members or $55 for nonmembers.
New this year is the Sunset Tram Tour. Your group has a tram to itself, starting at 4:45pm, for a ride around the lake trail with a drink while the sun goes down and the lights come up. The tour ends at Fogg Café, and the group stays for the rest of the evening. Only one tour runs each night, for up to 12 guests. It costs $750 for members and $900 for nonmembers, and you have to book at least 48 hours ahead. Split among a full group of 12, that comes to $62.50 per person on the member rate and $75 on the nonmember rate. Both are below the price of a single Premium ticket, and every tour ends inside the Fogg Café space where Ánima Botánica is installed. Nonmember tram reservations open November 2, the same day as nonmember general tickets. Each night has only one tour, so the number of evenings left before January 3 is the real limit on availability.
After the Lights: Dates for January and February
Once the holiday season ends, the Garden's calendar moves on to the exhibition that the November workshops helped make:
- January 9: Music in the Garden, 2 to 4pm
- January 22: Rhythm & Blooms with the North Florida Swing Collective
- January 23: What is Gathered Remains opens. Plein Air Fest runs from 10am to 2pm the same day.
- February 5–7: Annual Ikebana Exhibition, with hours that vary by day
- February 13: Music in the Garden
- February 19–21: Naples Orchid Society Annual Show & Sale, with hours that vary by day
- February 26: Rhythm & Blooms with Adrian Crutchfield
General admission is $27 for adults and $12 for ages 4 to 17. Children 3 and under get in free, and so do members. The Shapiro exhibition will be on view until June 1, which gives seasonal residents plenty of time to see it. The workshops that feed into it are only on the mornings of November 14 and 15.
The Earls | Lappin Team keeps track of the Naples calendar as closely as the Naples market, from Gordon Drive across the bay to Bayshore. If you'd like to talk over the season, or find a quieter evening for guests during Night Lights, please Contact Us.