Sarasota Succulent Society

Description

We are a beautiful botanical garden with the mission of spreading succulent awareness. The Sarasota Succulent Society was started by an industrious and interested group of people who knew, worked and studied with Walter G. Sparkman at his home, a small house on 38th Street next to a creek. Mr. Sparkman started many individual gardens in his yard and carefully filled them with succulent plants from around the world--which he studied and watched carefully to see if they could grow in Sarasota. After his students began to fill the yard with more and more families of plants, he suggested they form a club and buy more property--the lot next door had come on the market. They did so, and when the drainage ditch was dug, along the site of the creek, the rock and sand removed was left in piles on the bank on the Succulent Society property. These rocks and berms were incorporated into the gardens and have made a rolling property from a very flat section of west central Florida. The Succulent Society property runs from 38th Street south to Myrtle and extends from Cocoanut east to the drainage canal. Mr. Sparkman's depression era style home has been awarded a local Historical Designation and we now use it as our clubhouse. OUR MISSION: To study the culture of succulents under local conditions. To strive to use the correct scientific nomenclature for succulents. To study the use of succulents in landscape and home gardening. To aid in civic projects involving succule