Mead Botanical Garden
Located north of Orlando, Winter Park is rich with parks, museums, a world-class campus for Rollins College, and a wonderful botanical garden. Mead Botanical Garden is a must-visit. See our home page.
On a recent Saturday morning, biology students at nearby Rollins College learned about conservation while lending a hand to the garden. They removed invasive plants like skunk vine and camphor tree seedlings that compete with native vegetation.
Free to the public
Whether you love to explore museums or spend time outdoors, Winter Park has plenty of free activities for you and your family. The city’s beautiful parks are perfect for a leisurely picnic with your favorite person, with picturesque settings and shady nooks throughout the landscape.
Winter Park is also home to a number of world-class museums, including the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art. Here, you can marvel at the museum’s incredible collection of works by Louis Comfort Tiffany. The museum also includes galleries of artwork and sculpture gardens.
Another popular museum is the Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Garden, set in the historic home of the Czech sculptor. You’ll find impressive art and sculptures here that you can admire at no charge.
Events at Azalea Lodge
The natural beauty of this park offers stunning backdrops for ceremonies and events from 50 to 175 guests. Majestic hundred-year-old oak trees, winding creeks, and specialty garden nooks provide unique settings for outdoor events. Inside the historic Little Amphitheater and Azalea Lodge, there are several different spaces to select from or combine, to fit your special event needs.
This lush 47-acre property offers hiking trails, a boardwalk, and a butterfly garden. The grounds are free and open to the public from dawn until dusk. Well-behaved dogs on leashes are welcome in most areas of the garden.
The garden’s mission is to inspire appreciation for Florida’s native flora and fauna through educational, recreational, and aesthetic opportunities. The property is home to several ecosystems, including a cypress swamp and longleaf pine forest. The grounds also feature walking/hiking paths, a scenic creek, and Alice’s Pond. The paved bike trail is great for biking, but the other trails are better suited for walking and hiking. This article is worth reading.
Botanical Collections
Almost 10 years ago, Paul Butler first set foot in Mead Botanical Garden, slipping through the little-used entrance on South Pennsylvania Avenue. The horticulturist was impressed. He had read about the 48-acre urban oasis named for arguably the most skilled hybridizer of plants who ever lived, but he was stunned when he walked around the lush grounds.
The Garden chronicles Mead’s life as a precocious child, a rugged adventurer, and a frontier citrus grower. It explores his unheralded invention of a method to protect fruit from freezes. It explains how Mead’s marriage to Edith Edwards, daughter of his entomological mentor, helped him realize his dream. It details the efforts of a Rollins alumnus and a Boy Scout, John “Jack” Connery, along with a tireless civic activist and Rollins President Hamilton Holt, to make that dream a reality.
Nature Trails and Boardwalks
For outdoor enthusiasts, this park is an ideal place for a day trip. The park features a butterfly garden, boardwalks, picnic spots, hiking trails, and a greenhouse. It is also home to a Discovery Barn and recreation center.
The park is free to visit and offers a wide variety of activities for visitors to enjoy. The park is also a great place for families to take their kids and pets for a day of fun in the sun.
The park is located in Winter Park, Florida. You can get there using public transit like a bus or train. Download Moovit, the all-in-one transit app to find schedules and routes to Mead Botanical Garden Bicycle Trail and anywhere else you need to go. The app makes riding on public transit easy and helps you navigate to your destination safely. Moovit is trusted by over 1.5 million users, including travelers in Winter Park, to help them plan their trips. Click here for the next blog post.
Driving directions from Wise Coatings Orlando to Mead Botanical Garden
Driving directions from Mead Botanical Garden to Lake Baldwin Dog Park
