Harry P. Leu Gardens Visitor Guide, Orlando

Leu Gardens on North Forest Avenue is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through November 18, 2026, and general admission costs $15 for an adult and $10 for a child 4 to 17 (Leu Gardens admission and hours).

Tickets for Leu Gardens are sold at the Welcome Center on arrival or online in advance, and the gardens accept major credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and personal checks, but cash is not accepted (Leu Gardens admission and hours). All admission and membership sales are final, and a separate ticket is needed for certain special and night events (Leu Gardens admission and hours).

Several groups enter Leu Gardens free. Active duty military with ID, including National Guard and Reserve members, get complimentary general admission; retired military and veterans enter free on Veterans Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day and Armed Forces Day (Leu Gardens admission and hours). Under Museums for All, a person showing a SNAP card with ID gets free general admission with up to three more family members or friends (Leu Gardens admission and hours). The American Horticultural Society reciprocal program admits up to 4 people on a valid member card with photo ID (Leu Gardens admission and hours).

Leu Gardens sits at 1920 North Forest Avenue, Orlando, Florida 32803, and drivers on I-4 use Exit 85 at Princeton Street, then follow the signs to free on-site parking (Leu Gardens directions and parking).

From Kissimmee and the attractions area, Leu Gardens tells drivers to take I-4 east to Exit 85, Princeton Street, turn right onto Princeton Street and follow the signs (directions). From Daytona and the Altamonte Springs area the route is I-4 west to the same Exit 85, turning left onto Princeton Street (directions).

From the airport area the gardens route drivers north on Semoran Boulevard (State Road 436) to Colonial Drive (Route 50), west on Colonial Drive to Mills Avenue, north on Mills Avenue to Virginia Avenue, then right on Virginia Avenue to the signs for Leu Gardens (directions). The Gardens offers free parking onsite daily (parking).

Arriving by bicycle works too: Leu Gardens encourages guests to ride to the gardens and keeps complimentary bike racks near the Welcome Center, although bicycles, e-bikes, scooters, skateboards and golf carts are not allowed inside the gardens (Leu Gardens visitor guidelines). The parking lot and EV charging stations are reserved for paying guests during their visit, and overnight parking is prohibited (guidelines). Tour buses drop riders in the bus unloading zone and then park in the bus parking area with the engine off (guidelines). The main phone line is 407.246.2620 (Leu Gardens).

Pets are not permitted in Leu Gardens, outside food and picnics are welcome, and drones are banned because of FAA rules and the gardens' closeness to local healthcare facilities (Leu Gardens visitor guidelines).

Service animals are welcome at Leu Gardens in accordance with ADA guidelines, but therapy animals, emotional support animals and pets are not, and the gardens ask visitors not to leave animals in parked cars (guidelines). Guests may bring their own food, drinks and reusable water bottles, picnic in designated areas around the gardens and use water fountains along the paths; vending machines are in the Welcome Center (guidelines). Foxtail Marketplace and Cafe sells food, drinks, ice cream and gifts on site (guidelines).

Most Leu Gardens pathways are paved, and complimentary wheelchairs are lent at the Welcome Center on a first come, first served basis; the gardens have no strollers to lend, so families bring their own (guidelines). Restrooms are in the Welcome Center, the Cottage Gardens and the Idea Garden (guidelines). Smoking, cigars, chewing tobacco, e-cigarettes and vaping are not permitted anywhere on the grounds or in the buildings (guidelines).

Commercial photography, video or film at Leu Gardens needs advance permission through the Marketing Department at 407.246.3622 (guidelines). Shoes and shirts are required and bathing suits are not permitted, and in thunderstorms the gardens point guests to rain shelters located throughout the grounds; the gardens stay open rain or shine and admission is non-refundable (guidelines).

Leu Gardens grows 15,500 botanical specimens on 50 acres, drawn from 223 plant families, more than 1,171 genera and 3,551 species (Leu Gardens collections page).

The Camellia Collection at Leu Gardens has more than 200 varieties and 1,700 individual plantings of Camellia japonica and Camellia sasanqua, many planted by Harry P. Leu himself, under the Live Oak canopy of the Woodland Gardens (collections). The gardens call it one of the largest recorded camellia collections in the U.S. (collections). The Azalea Collection holds 30 varieties and species, with peak bloom in February and March each year (collections).

Other Leu Gardens collections cover a wide range. The Palm Garden displays more than 300 palm species and tests palms for cold and drought tolerance; the Bamboo Collection has 50 species and varieties (collections). The Rose Garden honors Mary Jane Leu, who first planted roses by Lake Rowena in 1944 (collections). The Tropical Garden follows a running stream down to the Lake Rowena shoreline through orchids, bromeliads, gingers and more than 150 climbing vines (collections).

The Edible Garden at Leu Gardens has evaluated over 800 varieties of edibles since 2014, and the gardens donate almost 100 percent of the harvested produce to local food banks (collections). The Herb Collection beside the 1888 Historic Leu House Museum is laid out as a Victorian era kitchen garden (collections). The Florida Native Plant Garden, the Arid Garden of agave, yucca and cacti, and the Butterfly Garden are among the other collections (collections).

Three families, the Mizells, the Pells and the Woodwards, held the land before the Leus, who gave the 50 acre estate to the City of Orlando in 1961 (Historic Leu House Museum, Leu Gardens history).

The Leu Gardens history starts in 1858, when David W. Mizell acquired the land and his family farmed it (history). John Thomas Mizell sold the first parcel of the homestead on April 22, 1901 to Duncan Pell of New York, who wanted to enter the citrus business, and Pell bought the second parcel on May 13, 1902 (history). The Woodward family bought the property in 1906 as a winter retreat and enlarged the house to its current size (history). The gardens' own pages differ on which Woodwards: the history page names Angeline and George W. Woodward, while the Leu House page names Joseph and Martha Woodward of Birmingham, Alabama (Historic Leu House Museum). The Historic Leu House Museum building dates from 1888 (Historic Leu House Museum).

Harry P. Leu, an Orlando businessman who owned an industrial supply company, bought the estate in 1936 (history, Historic Leu House Museum). Orlando Memory, the Orange County Library System history archive, gives the price as $40,000 and records that by 1961 the grounds held nearly 3,000 camellia bushes and several hundred azaleas (Orlando Memory). The Leu House Museum was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994 (history).

The Historic Leu House Museum normally runs guided tours Tuesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., with the last tour at 12:30 p.m., and closes every July, but Leu Gardens lists the house as temporarily closed as of October 15, 2026 (Leu Gardens admission and hours). The general admission ticket covers Historic Leu House Museum guided tours (Leu Gardens admission and hours).

The City of Orlando has decided not to move forward with the conceptual Leu Gardens master plan, citing community feedback and uncertainty over Amendment 3, the property tax ballot measure (Leu Gardens master plan page).

Leu Gardens says repairs, aging infrastructure and building upkeep continue while the broader master planning stops, and it posts staff answers to questions raised at the April 27, 2026 public meeting (master plan page). The same page counts nearly 300,000 visitors each year at the North Forest Avenue gardens (master plan page).

Three dates matter for a Leu Gardens visit this season. Free admission days are November 2 and December 7, 2026 and January 4, 2027, and the gardens close early at 4 p.m., with last admission at 3 p.m., on Saturday, October 17, 2026 (Leu Gardens admission and hours). Winter hours from November 19 end at 4 p.m. daily, so an afternoon visit in December needs an earlier start (Leu Gardens admission and hours).

One figure is out of step. The City of Orlando Venues page still describes Leu Gardens as featuring more than 8,000 species (City of Orlando, Orlando Venues), while the gardens' own current collections page counts 3,551 species among 15,500 specimens (Leu Gardens collections). The city page does confirm the ownership: the City of Orlando owns the gardens and runs them through the Orlando Venues Department, with the Kia Center and the Mennello Museum of American Art (City of Orlando).

Last verified: October 15, 2026, on the Harry P. Leu Gardens and City of Orlando websites.