The Gardens grows, collects, and displays 50-acres and 15,500 botanical specimens. The collection represents 223 different plant families representing more than 1,171 genera and 3,551 species including:
The Florida Native Plant Garden emphasizes the best plants for Florida’s growing conditions in the Gardens lakeside, upland, and canopy shaded areas, which include flowering plants, palm and Live Oak trees, wildflowers, and many pollinator plants.
The Edible Garden displays fruits and vegetables, and the Gardens has evaluated over 800 varieties of edibles since 2014. The Gardens donates almost 100% of its harvested produce to local food banks. The
Tropical Fruit Collection displays many different varieties of tropical, subtropical, and temperate trees that bear fruit including citrus, avocado, guava, jaboticaba, jackfruit, loquat, lychee, macadamia mango, pineapple, starfruit, fig, nectarines, peaches, and olive among others.
The Herb Collection is located near the 1888 Historic Leu House Museum and is interpreted as a Victorian-era kitchen gardens containing herbs used for culinary, medicinal, and aromatic purposes.
The Palm Garden displays more than 300 different species of Florida's iconic tourism symbol. The Gardens evaluates palm trees for cold and drought tolerance, and shares research globally with scientists.
The Bamboo Collection includes 50 different species and varieties.
The Rose Garden is dedicated to Mrs. Mary Jane Leu and her love of roses, who first planted roses by Lake Rowena in 1944. Historic and showy varieties of roses on display include hybrid tea roses, grandiflora, floribunda, miniature, old gardens, Bermuda, shrub or picnic, and knockouts.
The Arid Garden is culturally popular and unusual as arids typically grow in more hot and dry climates, this collection thrives in Central Florida and includes Agave, Yucca, Dasylirion, Opuntia, Crassula, Acacia, and many succulents and cacti.
The Butterfly Garden contains a wide variety of annuals, perennials, shrubs, and trees that are attractive to butterflies among other pollinators including hummingbirds and used for food or larval.
The Tropical Garden is a tropical rainforest that provides an immersive experience with a running stream that winds its way through lush plantings to the shoreline of Lake Rowena. Orchids, bromeliads, ti plants, birds-of-paradise, pothos and philodendrons, gingers and heliconias, banana trees, crotons, calatheas, ferns and more than 150 different climbing vine plants grow in abundance among towering palm, oak, banyan, pine, cypress, juniper, and banana trees.
The Woodland Gardens are found in the oldest parts of the property and contain large, shaded tree canopies of Live Oak trees that protect and highlight our historic
Camellia Collection Many planted by Harry P. Leu himself, the Camellia Collection includes more than 200 varieties and 1,700 individual plantings of Camellia japonica and Camellia sasanqua. This is one of the largest recorded collections of camellias in the U.S.
The Azalea Collection includes 30 different varies and species of the evergreen shrub. Showy flowers bloom in peak season with colors of white, pink, and purple in February and March annually. The
Conifer Collection includes plants and trees that are evergreen and bear cones or small fruits including Long-Leaf Pine, cypress, junipers, Podocarpus, and holly, among others.
The Flowering Tree Collection of trumpet, jacaranda, silk floss, magnolia, bottlebrush, crepe myrtle, and dogwood among others. Other collections found throughout the Gardens include hibiscus, mallow, cycad, ornamental and native grasses and trees.