A botanical blog: Leu Gardens in Orlando, FL

I'm not sure that the Harry P. Leu Gardens is going to make my list of top ten favorite gardens, but it was nice to stroll among the tropical plants for an afternoon.

The parking lot is small, though we arrived early enough to find a spot. By the time we left, folks were parking on the lawns all along the driveway.

Upon entry you walk through the Garden House where you pay and can visit the gift shop. There are some large rooms for events in the house. It seems that lots of people have their weddings here and in the gardens themselves.

The Tropical Stream Garden is the first you pass through, and I think it was my favorite of them all. It was like Hawaii, and I do love Hawaii. Here's a view looking back at the Garden House from the Tropical Stream Garden.

There are many collections in the Gardens, but many were not in bloom.  I mean, what season is it here anyway? The azaleas and camellia blooms are almost gone, yet the leaves are just coming out on many of the deciduous trees. Spring is just so atypical with these subtropical and tropical plants. We are supposedly in Zone 9B, but there is a lot of crossover of plants from different zones as well.

I zeroed in on the palm collection and was fascinated by the variety of leaf shapes, as well as the flowers and fruits in various stages of development.

These palm flowers I've seen before at The Great Outdoors, so they must be a pretty common variety.

These next three were all on the same tree, so I'm guessing that they are three stages of the plant's fruit development.  To me it seems strange how they are so unlike the more typical North American flowering trees whose fruits all mature simultaneously within a season. These seem to have a sequential or rolling blooming and ripening season. 

I love the light coming through the larger tropical leaves, and the patterns that are revealed on their undersides. 

Here is an intimate view of a large stand of bamboo.

A beautiful tropical flower of some sort.

Masses of figs!

This pavilion was in the center of the Idea Garden.  There were more familiar plantings in this section that you might find in the suburban yards in much of the US.

I wish I knew what this flower is. It sure looks like some kind of an orchid, but I know almost nothing about orchids. It was growing in clumps in the ground like iris or gladiolus. There were also white ones.

In closing, one of many non-botanical anoles living in the gardens.