Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens

Henry Nehrling

Henry Nehrling was born on May 9, 1853 in the town of Herman, Wisconsin. He was home-schooled by his German parents until he was around 13 years old and then attended a Lutheran parochial school in the town of Plymouth, Wisconsin. During these years growing up, Nehrling became interested in nature, especially birds. At that time, the area in which he lived, Sheboygan County, consisted of largely undeveloped pine forests. As a young man, Nehrling attended at a teacher's seminary in Addison, Illinois and graduated in 1873. He found a teaching position at a Lutheran school in Forest Park, Illinois and got married to Sophie Schoff; they would eventually have nine children (she passed away in 1911 and Nehrling remarried in 1916).

During the next ten years, he continued to teach at Lutheran schools, moving from Illinois, to Texas, and then to Missouri. He also continued to study birds and began to experiment with tropical and subtropical plants. In 1885, he bought 40 acres of land in the German community of Gotha, which is ten miles west of Orlando, to conduct horticultural experiments and he eventually grew a large collection of hybridized tropical plants. He called the property Palm Cottage Gardens and it is open to the public the Nehrling Gardens.

Two years later, Nehrling moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to become Deputy Collector of Inspector of Customs at the Port of Milwaukee. Then in 1890, he became Custodian of the Milwaukee Public Museum and wrote an essay, in German, called "Orchids in South Florida." In the coming years he wrote three books, all in German, about birds and he earned the nickname "the Audubon of Wisconsin." He also published an English version of one of the books. During his tenure in this position, the museum became one of the top three natural history museums in the country.

In 1902, Nehrling left Milwaukee to permanently settle in Florida and took a keen interest in flowering plants called caladiums. He named hybrid caladiums after some of his family members, including a son. In 1906, Nehrling started collaborating with the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Plant Industries Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction. He tested 3,000 plants through this connection and was able to work with horticulturalists from around the world.

Sadly, a deep freeze killed most of his plants in 1917, prompting him to buy the the land that would become the Naples Zoo. He called it "Tropical Gardens Arboretum" and would eventually grow over 3,000 tropical plants there. By the 1920s, he had established himself as one of the world's foremost authorities on tropical plants. The gardens attracted scientists and environmentalists including Thomas Edison, John Burroughs and President Theodore Roosevelt. Nehrling passed away on November 22, 1929 at Palm Cottage Gardens.

Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens

For over 20 years after Nehrling's death, the gardens were not maintained. In the early 1950s, this situation changed when businessman Julius Fleischmann started to restore them and introduced tropical birds as well. The site reopened in 1954 and was called Caribbean Gardens. Beginning in 1969, Lawrence and Nancy Tetzlaff introduced animals to the gardens after Fleischmann died. Over time, the zoo and gardens expanded, adding new exhibits and animals. In 2005, Collier County acquired the property, saving it from real estate development. Naples Zoo continues to offer a wide array of educational programs and activities.

"A Guide to the Henry Nehrling Collection." Rollins College Archives and Special Collections. Last Updated 2006. Accessed March 5, 2021. https://lib.rollins.edu/olin/oldsite/archives/nehrling.htm.

"Celebrating 100 Years of Natural History." Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens. Accessed March 5, 2021. https://www.napleszoo.org/history.

Driapsa, David. The Cultural Landscape Foundation. Accessed March 5, 2021. https://tclf.org/pioneer/henry-nehrling/henry-nehrling.

"Henry Nehrling." Nehrling Gardens. Accessed March 8, 2021. https://nehrlinggardens.org/history/henry-nehrling.