"Death is Good for the Garden"

George Harrison: A Gardener’s Life and Selby Gardens’ Hurricane Recovery

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida is a dual-campus botanical garden, highlighting plants and native nature at both of their bayfront sanctuaries. In the hurricane season of 2024, Selby Gardens was lashed several times by storms. Hurricanes Helene and Milton whipped the through the two bayfront sanctuaries that Selby Gardens.

Ship run aground after Hurricane Milton at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens' Downtown Sarasota campus (2024)

The 2024 hurricanes were unrelenting in their damage. Selby Gardens, like many of its members, were deeply impacted by storm surge and extreme winds. On the Downtown Sarasota campus, the mangrove walkway had completely lifted was deemed unsafe for visitors. Unsalvageable trees were cut down, and those which still stood were stripped of all their leaves. At least five small boating vessels capsized on Selby’s shores. Shocked by salt water from the Sarasota Bay, the great lawn, once bright green, turned brown.

Following the dramatic landfall of these storms, Selby announced their Spring 2025 exhibition. For their Spring 2025 installation of their Jean & Alfred Goldstein Exhibition Series, Selby would show George Harrison: A Gardener’s Life. This gardens-wide exhibit follows a Selby tradition of platforming artists, started by the punk rocker and poet Patti Smith.

"Ye (Gently) Weeping Garden" in Selby Gardens' Tropical Conservatory (2025)

Scale model of Friar Park's Alpine Garden at Selby Gardens (2025)

For the horticulturalists and gardens maintenance teams, there lied a daunting task ahead: recovery. Between landfall of the last hurricane (October 10, 2024) and the exhibition opening date (February 9, 2025), Selby had exactly 5 months to bring the gardens to a presentable state for the upcoming exhibition. Donors generously supported Selby’s recovery through their Hurricane Milton Recovery fund. The fundraising and landscaping culminated in the opening of an all-encompassing exhibit.

George Harrison is best known for his career as a member of the Beatles and a solo-artist. But Selby highlights his passion for plants and the gardens through his purchase and renovation of the historic Friar Park Estate.

Inside the Museum of Botany & the Arts, there’s a photo of George sitting atop a large excavator, marking the entrance to the indoor portion of the exhibit. Just to the left, images of Friar Park in its former whimsy when it was owned by Sir Francis Crisp. For those who have encountered Harrison’s music, this name might ring some bells. “Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let it Roll)” from George Harrison’s album All Things Must Pass, honors the man for whom the Friar Park Estate was built. This was the setting for George’s discovery of his greatest passion: gardening.

"Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let it Roll)" (2014 Remaster) by George Harrison

George’s wife Olivia is also featured throughout the exhibit. While the exhibit overtly explores the connection between George Harrison and nature, there are themes of deathand grief. The former Beatles member passed away in November 2001 from lung cancer, when he and Olivia had hoped for one more spring.

Wherever we abound, a formless state of nothingness where emotions are consumed for now            

Alone in winter, feeling spring will never bloom.

“Another Spring” poem by Olivia Harrison

A spring perennial, the amaryllis, blooms at Selby Gardens (2025)

An orchid grows on a tree at Selby Gardens (2025)

In many ways, this exhibit allows her to have one more spring with George. His likeness is plastered around the gardens, demonstrated through the activities they shared in his final years. Her poetry lines a chain link fence, memorializing George and addressing the beauty of nature and brevity of life. In one such poem, “Death is Good for The Garden,” she comes to peace with George’s death. A video plays at the end of the visit to George Harrison: A Gardener’s Life. A team prepares the Friar Park estate for George’s wake. Olivia Harrison’s collection of poems titled Came the Lightening is open on “Another Spring.”

George and Olivia shared many springs in the estate they revitalized. Friar Park, once in disrepair after its abandonment, was brought back to life. Death transformed into beautiful flower and topiary gardens. And though George passed in the winter of 2001, spring inevitably came for Olivia. Just as Selby experienced the death brought on by two major hurricanes, spring too came for the gardens. The hard work of the horticulturists, the changing seasons from winter to spring, and the excitement of George Harrison: A Gardener’s Life brought new liveliness to the Selby. In the garden, death does not signify an end.

Regrowth of leaves on a tree damaged by Hurricanes Helene and Milton (2024)

Check out the incredible recovery Selby Gardens has made from the 2024 hurricane season and visit George Harrison: A Gardener's Life at Selby's Downtown Sarasota campus before it concludes on June 29, 2025.