Our next sale will be November 8 and 9, 2025 at Fairchild Gardens. The sale will be from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm each day. We had an excellent sale in the spring with nearly 300 species of palms and cycads for sale. We’ve had a great response from vendors.
In addition, we will have walking tours of the Fairchild’s world-class Palmetum, lead by SFPS members on Saturday and Sunday. The tour schedule will be posted here before the sale.
We are expecting 8 to 9 vendors. As they complete their application and species lists, we will post them below. Around a week before the sale, we should have a consolidated list of species from all vendors. Confirmed vendors who have submitted their plant lists so far are shown below. These plant lists are provisional, as growers can add to the plants being offered at the sale.
| Linda Apriletti (Artist, oil based paintings) | Clay Porch, Vendor #2 |
| Albert Livingston, Vendor #31 |
As a very special addition, we will have for sale paintings by Linda Apriletti, a very accomplished plein air styled artist. She will be at the sale in person. Linda has shown her artwork in solo exhibitions, including at Everglades National Park, Big Cypress National Park, Museum of the Everglades, and Biscayne Nature Center, and many group settings. She crafts her work the old-fashioned way, by going on location to immerse herself in the beauty that surrounds her.
Paintings by Linda Apriletti
Photos from past sales
A LITTLE HISTORY ON THE PALM SOCIETY & PALM SHOWS IN MIAMI
In 2022 the International Palm Society (IPS) celebrated its 67th anniversary. It is now a far-flung organization, with affiliate societies active around the world, but it was founded here in Florida. Dent Smith, an oil field worker turned investment house wizard, retired young to Daytona Beach, Florida, where, single-handedly, he created The Palm Society as a conduit for sharing his obsession with the stately plants.
From its beginning in 1955, the Palm Society has had strong links to Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Among its first directors was Mrs. Marian Fairchild, widow of Dr. David Fairchild, the Garden’s namesake.
Another of the Palm Society’s early members, Lucita Wait, was longtime coeditor of the Fairchild Garden Bulletin alongside some notable writers such as Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Of the first 10 founding members of the Palm Society, the last one surviving was Stanley Kiem (1929-2020), who for many years was superintendent of the Garden. Not surprisingly, over time many palm enthusiasts have belonged to both the Society and the Garden.
A movie theater parking lot was the site of the initial Palm Society sale in Miami in the mid-1970s. As interest in palms burgeoned, a better sale venue was warranted. Accordingly, in 1979 Fairchild Tropical Garden hosted the first Fall Show and Sale of the Palm Society, with plants arrayed on tables just outside the Nell Montgomery Garden House. The next year, more space and less sun was needed, and the event’s location within Fairchild Tropical Garden was moved to the Montgomery Palmetum.
