"Admission: Adults $20; seniors $15, children ages 6 to 17 $10, and children 5 and younger free. Audio tours in English and Spanish for $5. Tropical Chihuly Nights: Adults $30, children ages 6 to 17 $20 and children 5 and younger free."

"This year's Dale Chihuly exhibit has to stand its own against a lush growing season at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden."

" Dale Chihuly can't quite discern any profound reason he has returned to Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Speaking over the phone from his Seattle studio, he cites the cool, sunlit beauty of South Florida's winter months, praises the clarity of its skies. But in the end, his decision to seed 15 sprawling glass installations throughout the garden for the second year in a row was rooted in nothing more than impulse."

""I don't know what it was. Normally, we wouldn't do that," he explains. "I've been asked before to have repeat shows, and even years later I wouldn't do it. But Fairchild asked and I sort of thought about it. I thought we could freshen it up with new pieces and change location of some of the others. They got me at a good moment. And it is a nice garden.""

"Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden unfolds its stunning greenery across 83 acres in Coral Gables. The garden is laced with lakes, a 2-acre tropical rain forest and more than 400 species of palms. It is the world center of cycads, which predate dinosaurs and are considered the oldest plant group on the planet."

"There are tropical fruit pavilions, a geometry of succulents, an 8-acre display of flowering trees. The 16,428-square-foot conservatory is stuffed with all manner of loveliness: orchid blossoms shaped like arrows and hearts, bromeliads bursting alongside ferns. There is a Keys coastal habitat, bamboo stands, resident monstrous and spiny iguanas perched on the coral wall by Glade Lake."

"There is so much to see that one could easily fritter a full day wandering about the garden's paved and unpaved paths, or simply seated at one of the many benches placed in shaded corners or on wide lawns."

"Fairchild's beauty is the quiet sort, and in order to raise this nonprofit's profile, both with locals and with tourists, a bit of flair was in order, a crystalline shot of the theatrical. This is what Fairchild staff and board members hoped for when Chihuly unveiled his works last year during the artist's first show at the garden."

"And they got it: Visitor attendance billowed from the average 125,000 to 300,000 during the exhibit's December to May run. The garden swung open its doors for Tropical Chihuly Nights, and 40,000 entered to see the confection of glass illuminated in shadow. Garden membership spiked from 22,000 to 35,000. The event was a windfall of funding and fame."

""Chihuly has dramatically changed people's perception of Fairchild," notes Dr. Mike Maunder, executive director of the garden. "What he's brought to it was a sense of excitement and drama.""

", a wild tangle of glass measuring 14 feet in height and diameter, and crafted from 1,000 separate components; and "

", which peaks at 26 feet high and contains 3,000 feet of neon. The latter piece is perfectly reflected in the nearby water, and at night both sculptures burn with light."

"are now set upon pedestals before a royal blue wall studded with mossy planters. A host of glass flowers resembling stretchy anthuriums are now potted in glossy jugs. This year the garden holds its own against the finery -- a strong growing season without hurricanes has dissolved the borders between the glass and the green, painting the garden as a living kind of artistry."

"The
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