Lukas Nursery & Butterfly Encounter

For someone that is obsessed with butterflies and raising them, this place was a dream. A butterfly enthusiast/gardener could spend all day here. The only reason I spent just a couple hours was because of the sweltering heat but I gladly would have wandered around for even longer. First of all, the dizzying array of all kinds of plants was very impressive. I was mainly interested in the butterflies and I quickly found the mass of monarchs circling rows of various milkweed species. They have every kind of milkweed I've heard of. I saw many butterflies laying eggs on the plants and I saw some large caterpillars and even snails on the plants which was so cool. I made my way to the butterfly encounter in the gift shop, paid 7$ to enter and enjoyed the different local species in all stages of growth. They explained that the population was a bit low at the time but there were still many painted ladies and zebra longwings and of course monarchs flying around or eating leaves as caterpillars. I've never seen so many hungry caterpillars in one area, the many milkweed plants were covered in what looked like hundreds of crawling monarchs! There is an enclosed area where you can place sugar water on your finger to entice the butterflies to feed from you. Like I said, I raise butterflies so my main motivation in coming here was to hopefully collect some eggs or larvae but I noticed signs in the encounter that said you cannot collect from that area so I asked if there were any plants with caterpillars on them for sale and they said yes, you just have to look around the nursery to find them. I gathered plants with many monarch eggs and some larvae as well as a few black swallowtail larvae. It was so much fun and I met a few other butterfly gardeners and we all talked about our wonderful hobby as we searched the plants for caterpillars. I highly recommend this place if you're into butterfly gardening or just gardening in general. There are enough plants to satisfy any gardening addiction. And the butterfly encounter is a great educational opportunity for people of all ages. Awesome experience all around.

This place really does have everything!! I ended up getting a yellow trumpet tree and jacaranda tree that I made the 80 mile trip for and also a pink trumpet tree and a weeping fern pine and some other things. They give you a free bag of potting soil with certain item which is pretty cool. The nursery is easy to navigate and have a huge selection of pots and bird baths. I wish they sold bat house. Would have bought one of those too!

All I can is wow. The selection this place has is unmatched. I’m doing a complete front yard overhaul on the house I just bought and they had every single plant I specifically wanted. The staff were also very helpful, full of advice and friendly. The drive out to Oviedo is well worth it. I can’t wait to go back.

First time here and let me tell you, it won't be the last. Such a VAST assortment of literally EVERYTHING you can think of. The staff is also super friendly and just really enjoyed the whole thing. You could probably spend hours just looking around. Stop by if you have a chance.

Lukas has everything you need for plants. The butterfly enclosure is so attractive.

The original farm was built in 1912 and is still operated by the family. I went to the fall festival, and they had pumpkins everywhere.

Mr. Phil explained how the US constitution was built using Florida live oaks like the ones you will see on the property. How are you have to drill to put the wood together.

Beautiful and really large nursery, complete with street names and paved roads to walk leisurely. It has a large variety of indoor and outdoor plants and roses, perennials and annuals, fruit trees, yard bushes, and much much more. It's worth just to go there to walk around and make your selections.

Very nice butterfly encounter and nursery. The butterfly encounter isn’t very expensive, definitely worth the money. There is an assortment of butterflies and caterpillars. You can even hold the butterflies inside a special enclosure. There are also finches, quail, and doves inside the area. Very nice assortment of flowers and plants. The nursery itself has a huge collection of plants, flowers, shrubs, topiaries, veggies, and fruit trees. Lots to choose from and prices were very reasonable. They also have decorations and large ceramic pots.

We love Lucas Nursery! We come here often to get help for our gardening projects. We’ve come here for a workshop to learn how and when to grow edibles. They have products other places don’t which really help keep your lawn and plants healthy. Highly recommend making a trip here if you haven’t yet. The staff is always very helpful!