Art at the Garden House

Garden House Welcome Center is the permanent home to a variety of art and rotating exhibits.

Rotating Exhibit

John Moran, "La Florida: 500 years in the Place of Flowers" through July 5, 2013

Permanent Exhibits

Mulford B Foster

Eight Paintings: Acreage, Cycadaceae, Orchidacae, Polypodiceae, Palmae, Cactaceae, Pencil Cactus, and Mexican Landscape
Oil on Canvas

A self trained naturalist he traveled throughout Mexico, discovering 200 new species of bromeliads in addition to species of amaryllis, cacti, palms and peperomia. His discoveries include Aechmea fosteriana (bearing his name) and Aechmea orlandiana, named after the city of Orlando. 

Mr. Foster introduced the Tabeuia tree to Orlando and their large yellow blooms can be seen blossoming around many Orlando city lakes. He was awarded the Herbert Medal in 1951 for his work in promoting amaryllids. 

He published articles in National Geographic, The Smithsonian Annual Report, and The Journal of the Bromeliad Society. He published a book with his wife Racine, on their plant collecting travels to Brazil. He was the leading figure of the formation of the Bromeliad Society in 1948. He served as its president for twelve years and edited its bi-monthly bulletin. He died at the age of 89 as the "father of Bromeliads" and a world-renowned horticulturalist. 

Theseabstract works of M.B. Foster earned him the name "passionate plant philosopher" and have been on display at the Maitland Art Center, and shows in New York and Pennsylvania before finding its permanent home at Harry P. Leu Gardens. The Foster Estate presented the paintings as a gift to the City of Orlando in 1992.

 

 Frank Farmer

Flowers For Janette is a six-foot buy ten-foot piece by artist Frank Farmer in 1995. Frank Farmer’s pieces are well known in Miami, Philadelphia and New York. Created by painting enamel flowers on aluminum, this piece resembles an impressionistic rendering of flower groupings, yet the colors are strong and bold. 

 

 

Bill Rollo

Camellias
Watercolor

  

John Catterall

Grove Diptych

Chrissie Mervine

Tree of Life
Mosaic