Affectionately referred to as “Mary Jane’s Rose Garden”, this large formal rose garden is of traditional European style and is the largest formal rose garden in Florida. The space is bright and open and features an Italian stone fountain surrounded by four gazebos.

Over 1,000 roses of various types burst with colorful blossoms year ‘round. Peak spring display is in April, followed by an autumn peak in October and November. Meander the walks to discover hybrid tea, floribunda, grandiflora, English, Bermuda Mystery, miniature, shrub and climbing roses. 

Mary Jane Leu’s great love for roses was evidenced by her efforts to have a proper and lasting rose garden. According to the Leu family gardener, Mrs. Leu’s first rose garden was located on the east side of the house.

Some time later, it was relocated close to the lake in front of the house. In 1944, when Mr. Leu’s interest in camellias seemed to overshadow Mrs. Leu’s roses, the garden was moved and placed in its current spot to the west of the house.

This area was always Mrs. Leu’s favorite. She saw the garden as a place of magical beauty and education for future generations.

This is a lovely site for large weddings.  Go to Facility Rental - Weddings and Receptions in the column on the left for more information about weddings in this location.
 

The Leu Camellia Collection is one of the largest outdoor collections of its kind in the United States. Common camellias (Camellia japonica) and sasanquas (C. sasanqua) comprise the majority of the collection as well as over twenty-five species from various locations throughout the world. Even the economically important tea plant (C. sinensis) finds a home at Leu Gardens.

Nestled under the forest canopy in the North and South Woods, a walk anytime from October to March will reveal marvelous waxy flowers in hues of red, pink, white, mottles and even a rare yellow.  t is believed that some camellias were present on the estate when Mr. Leu acquired it in 1936. From 1936 to 1955, he planted over 1500 camellias on the estate, a handful of the original plants remain today.

Central Florida is an excellent region to grow and enjoy camellias. In general, the cultural practices for growing camellias are similar to those for rhododendrons, azaleas, and hollies. Just ensure that the camellias are shaded from the intense Florida sunshine. Here at Leu, the camellias grow under the majestic canopies of oak and sweetgum and pine trees.

Tropical Stream Garden

Completed in 2000, the Tropical Stream Garden is the first setting you will encounter at Leu Gardens. 

Enter a lushly planted tropical stream setting. Follow the small stream as it meanders and cascades down to Lake Rowena.

Economic plants may be found in this garden, too. Besides bananas (Musa spp.), look for papaya (Carica papaya), passion fruits (Passiflora spp.), starfruit (Averrhoa carambola), mango (Mangifera indica ‘Keitt’), guava (Psidium guajava), and lychee (Litchi chinensis spp. chinensis). 

In the lower part of the Tropical Stream Garden, native Florida plants abound—creating a transition to the shores of the lake. These natives are true tropical plants, or ones that have a lush tropical look. Palmettos (Sabal spp.), coralbean (Erythrina herbacea), seagrape (Coccolobba uvifera), spider lily (Hymenocallis latifolia), horsetail (Equisetum hyemale), spiderwort (Trandescantia sp.), and many ferns are found amongst live oaks (Quercus virginiana), red maples (Acer rubrum) and bald cypress trees (Taxodium spp.).

This garden creates the look and feel of the tropics. Listen for the gurgling natural spring and look for plantings with a tropical character such as Bird-of-Paradise, banana, ginger, tree ferns, palms and flowering vines.
 

The Idea Garden showcases noteworthy plants and architectural techniques and materials suitable for Central Florida gardeners. 

Since its opening in late 2003, this three acre space has been devoted to educational displays and is divided into sections showcasing different plant groups including annual and perennial flowers, vines, ground covers, fragrant flowers, “bird friendly” plants, ornamental grasses, shade plants and textured plants. 

Within each section, gardeners can observe and compare reliable plants for Central Florida. 

The courtyard gazebos is a lovely site for small weddings at Leu Gardens.  Go to Facility Rental - Weddings and Receptions in the column on the left for more information about weddings in this location.

Urban Patio Garden   Urban or courtyard gardens are ideally suited to smaller urban spaces in Central Florida’s fast growing region.  The Urban patio garden is here to help gardeners learn how to bring shape, form and sound to a small area.   The answer lies with proper selection of plants and construction materials to create the illusion of space and provide running room for small children.  Wide areas paved with brick create the illusion of a much larger space.    The paved patio will also provide space for outdoor entertaining, cooking and lounging.  By using containers, any homeowner can rearrange the space on a moments notice depending on the planned activity.   By using just a few kinds of plants in each area, any gardener can create the look of a much larger space.  Using a variety of the foliage colors provides depth, a necessary look in a small space.  Repeating foliage colors helps tie the garden together and keeps the eye moving from one spot to the next.   Enabling Garden     Using raised beds for gardening provides excellent accessibility to someone in a wheelchair or who needs to remain seated most of the time.  They are also helpful to people with visual impairments because they're in closer range than the ground.   Notice that someone in a sitting position can reach the long thin flowerbeds.  Rather than sit in the chair, many people simply pull themselves from the chair onto the wide stone coping and garden.    Many people enjoy sitting on the grass but have difficulty getting up and down from a wheelchair.  We have planted grass in a raised bed to make getting in and out of a chair easier.  So grab a good gardening book and enjoy!   Bird Garden    One benefit of Florida living is the enjoyment of plants and wildlife in the landscape through most of the year.  By proper plant selection, gardeners can enhance the landscape to attract, feed, and shelter birds for year-round enjoyment.   Attracting birds to the garden is easily done.  Birds, like all wildlife, need food, water and cover.  A number of plant species attract birds by providing fruits as a source of food.  Flowers of some species attract insects, which are in turn eaten by other types of birds.  Migratory birds are particularly abundant in and these birds can be attracted to landscapes by use of plants that provide seeds, fruits or insects during the fall and spring migrations.  Some of the flowers also attract hummingbirds.   For easy to build plans of several birdhouses  simply click on the individual image below. Wren House Description Tufted Titmouse House Description Tree Swallow House Description   Perennial Garden  Flowering perennials live two or more seasons.  Flowering may occur for two weeks to six or more months depending on flower variety and weather.  Unlike annuals that need to be planted each year, these flowers continue to grow even when dormant. Perennials provide interest with endless variations in colors, sizes, habits and time of bloom.  Perennials are easily used as ground covers, mixed with annuals, grown in containers, and used as accents or specimen plants.    This garden demonstrates some of the perennials that are suitable for growing in Orlando.   Fragrance Garden   Fragrant flowers, aromatic foliage or delicious fruit may make any garden a favorite by appealing to our sense of smell.  The primary purpose of scent in flowers is to attract pollinators (usually insects) for fertilization.   The flower produces scent in glands located near its petals.  Insects are attracted to the scent.  As they search for nectar they coat themselves with pollen that is carried from flower to flower, causing pollination.  Some plants have aromatic foliage and stems in addition to aromatic flowers.  Rosemary and scented-leaf geraniums are favorite examples.   Evening Garden   Wouldn’t it be great to wind down after a stressful day at work by wandering around your garden or sitting on the patio breathing in the evening air and the scent of flowers and herbs?    The first thing you need to consider is that the quality of light in the evenings is not the same as at midday.  The sun is low, and gives off a reddish light, which can make yellow or blue flowers look washed out.  When it gets dark and streetlights come on, many darker colored flowers become almost invisible.  For these reasons, it is better to choose pale colors, and the closer they are to white, the better.  They can be seen, whether by the evening sun or some form of artificial light.  There is another advantage to very pale flowers - because they tend to be pollinated by moths rather than bees and other day-time insects, they give off delightful, musky scents which help to enhance your garden.    Wildflower Garden   Many wildflowers are well suited to the home landscape, and there are lots of good reasons to use wildflowers in gardens. Gardeners love color, and we love to bring the beauty of nature into our yards. Growing wildflowers enables us to do both. Another important reason to use native plants is to preserve the character of our regions.   The growing interest in wildflower gardens is part of the age-old quest for the "right plant for the right spot." Native plant gardens that are designed to take advantage of local conditions often are less hassle than high-maintenance, formal beds and borders, and they blend more gracefully into the landscape.   The key to successful wildflower gardening is to keep in mind the variations in local climatic conditions and soil characteristics. Change is also a natural process that influences wildflower gardens. You should expect that over the long haul weeds will invade, plants will grow, plants will die, and desirable native "volunteers" will find your garden a welcome habitat.   Ornamental Grasses As landscape designs become less formal, ornamental grasses are beginning to appear in traditional perennial beds, shrub borders and natural areas.  They can be used as specimens, border or background plantings, as screens, or they may be grown as container plants.  Ornamental grasses are available in a wide array of colors, shapes, textures and sizes. The flowers and subsequent seed heads are equally different and each grass species has it's own unique form.   Once established, ornamental grasses require very little care. These durable, low maintenance plants will not only add distinction to the landscape during the summer months, but they will be quite dramatic in the winter landscape as well.     Shade Gardens While the full-sun vegetable and perennial gardens have their functions, nothing takes the place of a tranquil, quiet corner of the yard with sweet scents, almost fluorescent colors, and best of all, cool shade.   A shade garden can be host to an astounding number of flowering and foliage plants.  There is a huge selection of suitable plants, shrubs, ground covers, and even under-story trees that will perform well in shade.   It is best to plant shade gardens in the spring or fall when temperatures are cooler and it rains often. Pay special attention to the kind of shade the plants prefer  -- some plants do well in light shade, while others thrive in partial or full shade. Every home has a place for at least a small shade garden.

Palm Garden

One of the most extensive collections of palms in Florida, the palm garden contains a wide variety of palms from various parts of the world. In addition to the display qualities, the palm garden is also an evaluative research collection to determine cold hardiness of palms in the Central Florida growing area.

Also included in this collection are extensive collections of Cycad spp. and more than  fifty types of bamboo.  Examples of sub-families represented within the collection are Coryphoideae (cabbage palms, Chinese fan palms, date palms, thatch palms), Arecoideae (fish-tail palms, sugar palms, triangle palm, coconut palms), Calamoideae (rattan palms), and Ceroxyloideae (majesty palms, bottle palms, bamboo palms, spindle palms). 
 

White Garden

Basking in the shade under tall trees, the White Garden is home to shade-loving plants with green-and-white variegated foliage or plants with white flowers. It offers many ideas for plant materials in gardens that receive little direct sunlight.

This intimate, cool respite is a lovely site for small weddings at Leu Gardens.  Go to Facility Rental - Weddings and Receptions in the column on the left for more information about weddings in this location.

At the north entrance to the White Garden stands the statue “Doves of Peace”. Poised in an ocean of liriope, the softly flowing form of this elegant bronze statue was made by Bob Winship. 

Wetland Garden and Wyckoff Overlook

The boardwalk and gazebo on Lake Rowena are named for John Wyckoff, one of Leu Gardens’ original board members. The areas adjacent to the Wyckoff Overlook were replanted in 1998 with native aquatic plants. This  resulted in an increase in wildlife including wading birds, turtles, and even an occasional alligator. Dragonflies especially like to buzz through this area in the summertime.

From the boardwalk a visitor will discover many interesting native Florida aquatic plants. In the lake there are water lilies and the lakeshore is covered with three native species of mangrove. In the swampy soils at the stream’s end pickerel weed, red swamp hibiscus, giant leather fern, arrowhead and arrowroot grow and provide seasonal flowers.

The lower portion of the Tropical Stream Garden meets the Wetland Garden. More native plants are found in this transition zone, including: Palmettos (Sabal spp.), coralbean (Erythrina herbacea), seagrape (Coccolobba uvifera), spider lily (Hymenocallis latifolia), horsetail (Equisetum hyemale), spiderwort (Trandescantia sp.), and many ferns are found amongst live oaks (Quercus virginiana), red maples (Acer rubrum) and bald cypress trees (Taxodium spp.).  

Butterfly Garden

Flowers which supply nectar to adult butterflies are planted here.  Look for an assortment of caterpillars that eat the leaves of special "larval" plants.  A wide variety of flowers are planted here to attract different types of butterflies.

Herb Garden

Displays of both culinary and medicinal herbs make up this garden.  Reminiscent of kitchen gardens from the turn of the century, herbs appropriate for the Central Florida landscape are demonstrated near the Cottage.

Vegetable Garden

Fruits, berries and seasonal vegetables suitable to the Central Florida climate are planted in this garden.  A variety of growing techniques and planting styles are also exhibited.  The vegetables and fruits produced in this garden are used in the Gardens' educational classes (see Leu Gardens Visitor Information).

Daylily Collection

Over one-hundred species and cultivars of Hemerocallis are represented to demonstrate various flower forms, flower colors, plant height and plant dormancy characteristics.