ABOUT MEAD GARDENS

     Named in honor of botanist Theodore L. Mead and first opened to the public in 1940, Mead Gardens incorporates in its fifty-five acres over 2000 varieties of flowers, shrubs, trees, and grasses along its winding trails, more than 300 kinds of orchids in its orchid houses, a heron rookery, and a natural amphitheater now endowed with a permanent stage.

     The largest of Winter Park's municipal parks, Mead Gardens is a hub of activity for the circles of the Winter Park Garden Club. The new Garden Center adjacent to the amphitheater was given to the Club in ceremonies in January of 1956 and is planned as a focus of gardening activity.

     The nucleus of the permanent botanical exhibits came from the extensive collection which Mr. Mead has developed near his home in Oviedo, collections of orchids, amaryllis, hemerocallis, bromeliads, and fancy leaf caladium's.

     Later rare plants from Central and South America and the East and West Indies were imported to thrive in Mead Gardens' peat soil and Winter Park's unique climate.

     Throughout its history, Mead Gardens has been supported largely by the generosity of the people of Central Florida who have appreciated its value and potentialities as an area of botanical interest, as a center of gardening activity, and as a Coliseum for civic and cultural events.

     In this new era of Mead Gardens, Fashions in The Garden is doing it's part in accomplishing these goals.