Spencer, Michael A.

Julian Nally was born in 1903; his father was Edward Julian Nally who became the president of RCA. Julian graduated from Princeton University and in 1932, he purchased the former Nehrling property known as Palm Cottage Gardens. There, he and his wife Margaret continued Nehrling's work growing bromeliads. He hybridized a bromeliad which he named Aechmea Maginali after his wife. Nally was a charter member of the Bromeliad Society, Inc. and served on the Board of Directors from 1951 through 1970. Julian Nally died in 1977.

Henry Nehrling, an ornithologist and horticulturist, was born on 9 May 1853 in Herman, Wisconsin, to Carl Nehrling and Elizabeth Ruge. He completed a teacher education program at the Lutheran Teacher's Seminary in Addison, Illinois and taught in Illinois, Missouri and Texas. Nehrling married Sophia Schoff of Oak Park, Illinois on July 20, 1874 and they had nine children. Their eldest son, Walter, became a professor of Botany at Illinois State Normal School. Henry Nehrling was an original member of the American Ornithologist's Union formed in 1883.

While living in Houston, Texas from 1879, Nehrling first had the opportunity of growing tropical plants. In 1887, he was appointed deputy collector and inspector of customs at the port of Milwaukee where he remained for three years until he accepted the post of Custodian of the Public Museum in Milwaukee where he collected plant specimens for their greenhouse. He purchased land in Gotha, Florida in 1884, but did not visit the property until 1886. Slowly, as his finances allowed, he developed the property into an ornamental garden. At the Columbian Exposition of 1893, Nehrling had the opportunity of examining many tropical plants and trees and became fascinated with the fancy-leafed caladium. Through a South American horticulturist, Adolph Lietz, Nehrling acquired hundreds of Brazilian caladium specimens. These were first housed in his greenhouse in Milwaukee but were later moved to Gotha. Nehrling created new hybrid caladiums which he named in honor of his wife, the "Mrs. Sophie Nehrling," his son the "Arno Nehrling" and his daughter-in-law "Mrs. Arno Nehrling."

Nehrling lost his position with the Public Museum of Milwaukee and permanently settled in Gotha in 1904. where he also began to experiment with the colorful annual flowering Amaryllis. He grew, hybridized, and popularized many unusual and exotic plants for the general public. Caladiums, palms, bamboo, and amaryllis were all introduced to the United States by way of his Palm Cottage Gardens. Nehrling's wife, Sophia, died on November 11, 1911, and on June 7, 1916 he married Betty P. Mitchell. A freeze in 1917 killed many of his most valuable plants; to avoid a recurrence, he purchased property in Naples, Florida where he could safely grow tropical species. He settled there in 1922 and by 1925, Nehrling had over three thousand species of tropical plants. Financial problems forced him to return to Gotha where he died on November 22, 1929 and was buried in Woodlawn cemetery near Gotha. His garden in Naples was preserved as the Jungle Larry’s Caribbean Gardens and some efforts have been made to preserve his Palm Cottage Gardens in Gotha.

Nehrling always wrote about his interests; he wrote articles on birds for the Nuttall Ornithological Club in Texas. In 1922, he began writing columns for The American Eagle, a weekly newspaper published in Estero, Florida. His first book Orchids in South Florida was published in 1890 and was followed a year later by Dis Nordamericanish Vogelwelt (North American Songbirds). Two volumes of Our Native Birds of Song and Beauty were published in 1893 and 1896 respectively. His next work, Die Amaryllis oder Rittersterne (Hippeastrum) (The Amaryllis), was published in 1908.

Michael A. Spencer was born in Orlando and grew up in Winter Garden, Florida. He worked at Sand Hill Nursery near Lake Avalon and the Land of Bromeliads in Gotha before finding employment with Julian Nally. After the Nally estate was sold, Spencer worked for Racine Foster at Bromel-La. He graduated from UCF in 1990 summa cum laude with a BA in Liberal Studies and then found employment with Lyman B. Smith at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Michael Spencer named a genus of bromeliads "Racinaea" in honor of Racine Foster. While engaged in his research, Spencer amassed this collection of materials concerning bromeliads and their collectors. He now lives in Frederick, Maryland where he has served on the Historic Preservation Commission since 2004.

Theodore Mead was born on 23rd February 1852 at Fishkill, New York to Samuel H. and Mary C. Luqueer. He graduated from Cornell University in 1877, and he worked at Cornell after graduation doing research in natural history. His first interest was in butterflies, and he published Report upon the collections of diurnal Lepidoptera made in portions of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona, during the Years 1871, 1872, 1873, and 1874, with notes upon all species known to inhabit Colorado in 1875. Mead first visited Florida in 1869 and moved to Eustis, Florida in 1881 where he spent five years developing an orange grove. He then purchased eighty-five acres of land in Oviedo, Florida where he hybridized orchids and amaryllis and later, caladiums. Mead worked with Cornell University in studying orchids. He died on 4th May 1936. The Mead Gardens in Winter Park, Florida are dedicated to his memory.