Art & Foliage Festival reveals green heart of Apopka
What a fine spring we’ve had recently with cool, breezy days and trees bursting with bright green — just the kind of weather that members of the Apopka Woman’s Club hope will keep dazzling us next weekend, when their Art & Foliage Festival blossoms once again in one of Central Florida’s oldest communities.
In the 1850s, the origins of Apopka were simply called “The Lodge,” after Florida’s oldest Masonic Lodge (now Orange Lodge No. 36), housed in an 1859 building that still stands, at 453 E. Main St. It was built the same year that Charles Dickens’ “Tale of Two Cities” was published and Abraham Lincoln gave an influential speech in Cincinnati. He had not yet been nominated for president; the Civil War had not begun.
Small-town feel
Incorporated in 1882, Apopka is now Orange County’s second-largest city, surrounded by the family-owned nurseries that inspired its nickname of “Indoor Foliage Capital of the World.” It’s the kind of place that retains a small-town feel, according to members of the Apopka Woman’s Club, which presents the Art & Foliage Festival with the city of Apopka.
In Apopka, a trip to the grocery store means, absolutely, that you’ll run into someone you know, says Joann Castillo, co-chairman of the 2022 festival with Geri Garnet Unrue. At the festival, they and other club volunteers look forward to seeing both old friends and new. They’ll be wearing their trademark green shirts, emblazoned
with the festival logo on the back, ready to help anyone with a question.
Organized in 1957, the Apopka Woman’s Club is a member of the national General Federation of Women’s Clubs. Founded in 1890, the federation boasts a long track record in Florida of protecting parks and green spaces, as Rollins professor Leslie Kemp Poole highlighted in her 2016 book “Saving
Florida: Women’s Fight for the Environment.” In South Florida, women’s club efforts led to the formation of Florida’s first state park, Royal Palm Park, in 1916; in 1947, it became the nucleus of Everglades National Park.
Closer to home, Apopka Woman’s Club members are especially proud of Kit Land Nelson Park, site of the festival, and its central gazebo, dedicated in 1979.
Once sandspurs outnumbered greenery at the park, but now it’s a green oasis. Weddings take place at its gazebo, supported by the club with proceeds from the festival and from a public-service award the club received from Walt Disney World, notes Stella Swanberg, club president in 1979.
The club’s role in the festival, which now draws thousands, began with a modest exhibit of artwork by club members in 1961. In 1965, the Apopka Jaycees debuted the first Apopka Foliage Festival; the two events were combined in 1976 to create the Art & Foliage Festival. This year, the park gazebo will be decked out with a special balloon arch bearing the festival’s 60th anniversary logo.
The festival is a great place to ask questions about how to care for various plants, with many plant experts and specialists on hand to offer tips based on their expertise. Top crowd-pleasing plants over the years include bromeliads. Club members say everybody loves them.
Like other Central Florida spring festivals, the most dramatic memories involve rain storms, such as the time in the 1980s when volunteers sloshed through the park with water up to their ankles. But, looking back over the years, the good times far outweigh the tough ones. Through the festival, the Apopka Woman’s Club has been able to support a wide range of causes, ranging from school band trips and Bloodmobile drives to the Special Olympics and college scholarships.
All club work is done on a volunteer basis by members who are “homemakers, school teachers, bankers, real estate agents, secretaries, bookkeepers, hourly and salaried employees,” Swanberg wrote in a description in club archives — all proud to be a part of Apopka, and among the hard-working residents who make it “such a great place to live and work and serve.”
If you go
The 60th Apopka Art & Foliage Festival is slated for April 23-24 at Kit Land Nelson Park, 35 S. Park Ave., Apopka. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.
Presented by the Apopka Woman’s Club and the city of Apopka, the festival showcases the work of juried artists and crafters as well as Central Florida foliage growers, and includes music, food vendors, a wine and beer garden, and a “Kid Zone.” Art and craft categories range from painting and photography to pottery, glassware, jewelry, candles and more. All proceeds are given back to the community through donations and scholarships, organizers note. For more information, visit www.apopkaartandfoliagefestival.org.