Isabel Foster Fern Glade

The Isabel Foster Fern Glade is a hidden botanical treasure within the Richard H. Simons Rainforest. This planting bed showcases the variety of shapes, textures and patterns in tropical ferns, with species from South Florida as well as exotic ferns from other regions.  The roughly two-dozen fern species congregate around a handsome chunk of Miami’s natural oolitic limestone. Embedded within the stone is a tile bearing a 1980 dedication to Ms. Isabel Foster. Ms. Foster, who passed away in 1976 at the age of 92, was the mother of Nell Foster Jennings, the wife of Fairchild’s founder, Coronel Robert Montgomery.