Henry Nehrling’s work at Gotha helped shape beauty German roots
Father’s Day seems a fine time to sing the praises of Henry Nehrling, who’s been called the “founding father of Florida horticulture.” Born in 1853, he died in 1929 at his Gotha home — which quite amazingly survives as one of Central Florida’s most important historic sites. We have an opportunity to support their work and see some of its fruits on June 27, at Nehrling Gardens’ Art & Stroll.
I say the gardens “amazingly” survives, because for many years, the chance that Nehrling’s former property would not become condos or townhomes seemed like a long shot. Floridians have tended to hear the siren song of “progress” louder than calls to preserve historic buildings.
Much of Central Florida’s past has been protected by chance, Sentinel journalist Beth Kassab once observed; often, a site has been saved only in response to a crisis of imminent destruction.
To quote the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s motto — “This Place Matters” — Nehrling Gardens matters indeed, for a lot of reasons.
It’s rare in Central Florida to find a piece of authentic horticultural science, history and architecture intact from the 1880s. The big white house on the property actually first occupied another nearby site in the 1880s and was moved in pieces by oxcart through the sandspur-strewn terrain to Nehrling’s lakeside land about 20 years later.
Nehrling Gardens is also a pillar of the German heritage of Gotha — one of only two communities in Florida with German roots, according to Gotha historian Kathleen Klare. Horticulturist Nehrling was living in Milwaukee around 1884 when he spied a newspaper essay that described Gotha as “a German settlement nine miles from what was then a city of little significance, Orlando, in the midst of the wilderness,” Nehrling later wrote.
Soon, Nehrling bought land in the German colony, and about 1902 he and his family moved there. By that time, Gotha had become a winter vacation spot where “many a German-American wedding couple, particularly those from Chicago and Milwaukee, experienced the quiet solitude and the unforgettable climate and charming landscape,” Nehrling wrote.
In Nehrling’s view, the most interesting resident was Karl Keller, a “Florida Robinson Crusoe” who lived by Lake Hiawassee in a one-room house on stilts. Keller’s mule lived under the house.
During the day Keller worked hard on his land, but in the evening neighbors could hear the sound of his piano and his clear baritone singing songs by Schubert and Schumann.
Transforming Florida
Nehrling’s work at Gotha in the early 1900s literally transformed the landscape of our state. He once grew as many as 250,000 caladium plants annually there and also tested more than 3,000 new and rare plants for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Of these, 300 new and beneficial plants were introduced into Florida’s landscape, including palms, caladiums, hybrid amaryllis, hybrid magnolias, camellias and bromeliads.
In 2009, the nonprofit Nehrling Society was able to rescue only six of Nehrling’s original 40 acres, because the rest had been lost to development over the years. Nehrling’s Gotha gardens remain “one of a handful of places in Florida that are the reason Florida is so beautiful,” as one Nehrling expert has noted.
If you go
June 27 brings a morning opportunity to visit and support Nehrling Gardens, 2267 Hempel Ave. in Gotha, during the gardens’ Art & Stroll from 9 a.m. to noon. Guests are invited to watch artists at work and check out new caladium plantings and other features. The event corresponds with an online art auction that begins June 27 and extends through July 3 at 5 p.m. Tickets for the June 27 morning event are $15 each. Call 407-445-9977.