Garden springs to life as renewed community sanctuary

January 29, 2008

Various pieces of literature, art and songs have a “forgotten garden” theme, and there’s no need to look far to find the University of Florida’s own forgotten garden.

It was a different era when the once-thriving gardens at the corner of Gale Lemerand Drive and Mowry Road were a Gainesville tourist attraction, popular wedding site and home to the largest publicly owned collection of camellias in the country.

Named for the 1940s UF horticulturalist Royal James “Roy” Wilmot, Wilmot Gardens would eventually succumb to weeds, hurricane winds, construction debris and the invasion of pests. UF stopped maintaining the five-acre area in the late 1970s or early 1980s, but a few camellias miraculously survived.

In 2006, Dr. C. Craig Tisher, professor of nephrology and dean of the College of Medicine, envisioned restoring Wilmot Gardens. His plan was to recreate a beautiful, tranquil place for patients and Health Science Center faculty, staff and students.

To help make Tisher’s vision a reality, UF employee Linda Luecking and her husband, master gardener Bill Luecking, began working in 2006 – and continue working to this day – to help restore the area to its previous glory. As a cancer survivor, Linda’s goal is to help provide a place for Shands patients to meditate and heal. She hopes to create a safe haven where patients can go when they feel the world is closing in on them.

“This is only a little selfish on my part,” she said. “I’ve been there. I want things to get better for people.”

With the help of Tampa-based landscape architect David Conner, there now is a plan to transform the gardens into five distinct, complimenting areas that will flow together.

The drawings, currently posted on a bulletin board in the garden, show a central community lawn where families and students can spread out blankets and enjoy the calming atmosphere. There are also plans for a waterfall and reflection pond, a camellia and azalea bower, a “secret” wooded sanctuary, and a working garden where Shands patients can plant and tend their own perennial flowers.

“We want to provide a place where people can go and make those critical decisions about their lives,” Luecking said.

Luecking hopes that the Gainesville and UF communities will rediscover the garden and take ownership by working in the garden and relaxing there.