Harry P. Leu Gardens in Orange County, Florida

Photograph: Harry P Leu Gardens (9059512600).jpg by KimonBerlin · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Restored from the credited Wikimedia Commons file, normalized to the consistent attraction-card frame and converted to WebP by 1stFlorida.com. Portrait originals retain their complete composition over a softly blurred extension of the same photograph.

Orange County attraction

Harry P. Leu Gardens

Orange County · Central Florida

Nearly 50 acres of botanical garden three miles from downtown Orlando, given to the city in 1961 along with the family house.

ABOUT THIS PLACE

Harry P. Leu and his wife bought the house and about 40 acres on Lake Rowena in 1936. They traveled a great deal and brought plants back, and in 1961 they deeded the house and the gardens to the City of Orlando. He died in 1977. The gardens now run to nearly 50 acres of planted ground. The collection is wide for a city garden: camellias in 240 varieties, along with aroids, azaleas, bamboo, bananas, bromeliads, citrus, cycads, ferns, gingers, heliconias, hibiscus, magnolias, palms and roses, most of it suited to the zone 9b climate that lets tropical and temperate plants grow side by side here. The restored Leu House stands at the middle of it, on the National Register of Historic Places, and guided tours through it show how a Florida household lived in the early twentieth century. The surrounding Mizell-Leu House Historic District, fifteen acres with three historic buildings, was designated on December 29, 1994. It is a quiet place a short drive from the theme park corridor

GETTING THERE

Get Directions ↗Official place website ↗

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