Tucker Ranch wellness park and botanical garden opens to the public Oct. 23

Editorial graphic by Winter Garden Community Website. Illustrative blurred community background: Wesley Chapel, Florida (August 2024), LittleT889 / Wikimedia Commons (CC0). Photo source · License

Winter Garden will open the 25.6-acre Tucker Ranch Holistic Health & Wellness Park and Botanical Garden to the public on Friday, Oct. 23, with a ribbon cutting at 10 a.m. at 100 Avalon Road. The city says the park will be open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. that day and admission is free.

Plan around one disruption first: the existing Tucker Ranch Park & Nature Preserve at the same address will be closed Wednesday, Oct. 21, and Thursday, Oct. 22, for construction, and reopens at 7 a.m. Oct. 23 for regular hours.

What's on the 25.6 acres

The addition is built around a 5,000-square-foot conference center with a glass roof strong enough to withstand hurricanes, seating 200 to 250 people for programs and health conferences, the West Orange Times & Observer reported. An outdoor kitchen was built for cooking demonstrations and food-to-table events rather than catering.

Grounds include a greenhouse, botanical gardens, an orchard, a modified farm with edible plants and blueberry bushes, and an old-Florida garden. A gazebo north of the arch and a story circle to the northeast are set up for school groups and outdoor lessons. When the Orange Observer toured the site in March, the pond pavilion, bridge and trail system with exercise nodes and outdoor fitness equipment were already finished.

The arch, and who runs the programming

Visitors enter through the West Orange Country Club arch, which stood for at least a century at the club's Avalon Road site and was relocated into Tucker Ranch earlier this year by Sanford-based Youngblood Building Movers to serve as the main entrance. The club itself originally opened in 1915; the city bought the property in 2011 and opened the original nature preserve in 2018, then broke ground on this addition in 2024.

Parks and Recreation Director Laura Coar said the city's Parks and Recreation Department will manage classes and events there, including yoga and meditation, working with partners such as Healthy West Orange, AdventHealth, Orlando Health, Shepherd's Hope and the Mental Health Association of Central Florida. While still under construction, the project was named one of five Parks and Gardens winners nationally in the 2025 American Architecture Awards.