Lukas Nursery & Butterfly Encounter

I love shopping here! They have such a wide variety of plants and flowers and everything we have purchased from them has been blooming since we planted them! This place is huge so if you can’t find it here, I’m not sure where you can find it. The pots are a bit pricey but they have a beautiful selection.

Improved massively over the time I have lived in the area. Visited yesterday looking for some shrubs and palms and the selection was excellent, prices seemed very reasonable indeed and we left with a car full.
We will be back for more at the weekend!

Love everything from the pots to the variety of flowers, plants and the wonderful staff members! Love shopping here, it’s an oasis at Luka’s Nursery & Butterfly Encounter.

We’ve been here twice and it’s a really lovely nursery. Its on a large lot so there are many options to choose from. Staffing is sparse so if you want assistance, you have to go to the checkout counter. They have a fall festival for the kids, however I wouldn’t call it a festival. It was a bouncy house and a small section with some overpriced pumpkins. Other than that, they do have some pretty good deals.

My wife and I love this nursery. The associates are very friendly, knowledgeable and generous with their time. It is worth the 40 minute drive and we know that we will get high-​quality service. This was our second visit and it was a great experience like the first. Amy Zing and Jennifer gave us very good recommendations on our yard. All the plants look very healthy and there are so many options.

This is going to be a lengthy review because I am passionate about plants and was blown away by how bad the customer service was.
The first time I came here, I was really enchanted. It’s huge with a bunch of quirky décor, and I was really happy to find a nursery near me. I bought a plant as a gift for a friend and upon seeing the sale prices for their fiddle leaf fig trees, I decided to buy one for myself, a dwarf version.
I brought it home, cleaned the leaves (which were absolutely filthy, I’m talking caked on with dirt and grime) and found it a nice, draft-​free place with tons of filtered light. The next day, it lost a leaf. Now, the fiddle leaf fig tree is actually a ficus, and it’s normal for ficus to lose a few of their older leaves when you change their light/​location. I own a couple of other ficus so I know the drill. I decided to wait until it got acclimated to the new light and location before repotting it, as I noticed it was a little root-​locked at the top of the soil, and didn’t want it to get shocked.
However, this wasn’t normal leaf drop. It lost three leaves or more every day, and its new leaves started dropping, and after fifteen days I knew something was wrong, as it lost over 75% of its leaves — I kept them in a bag to keep track. I knew I was doing everything right, I consulted multiple websites and my friends who owned large, healthy fiddle leaf figs — watering it as soon as the soil went dry and not before (sticking a finger in the dirt to assess) and misting it every day to mimic it’s natural humid conditions. I decided to check out the root bulb — this plant was way beyond root locked, it was a rubber band ball of roots and I think there was even fungus, a clearly unhealthy plant when I bought it.
I decided to take advantage of their policy for a diagnosis, confident I’d get more than 50% back as it was clearly beyond my control. I brought the plant in as well as the bag of fallen leaves (over twenty to the ten or so remaining). I was told that the greenhouse specialist would come and diagnose the problem. We waited and suddenly an older lady appeared beside the plant. She didn’t acknowledge or greet us, simply gave one look at the plant and said «This plant is fine». I showed her all the leaves it dropped, and she told me what I already knew, that ficus will drop leaves when moved to a new light source. I showed her that this was more than normal leaf drop, that a whole branch was missing leaves, to which she responded «yeah, that branch is dead,» and that the plant was completely root locked when I bought it. She only approved me for 50% back towards another plant. When I tried to ask for more, she told me that this was all they did and handed me a form to fill out for the discount while I chose another plant. I noticed that under type of discount (where 50% was checked off) full refund was an option, so that was clearly a lie. Regardless, I was too annoyed to fight with this rude lady, so I simply went to go find another fiddle leaf fig.
At the greenhouse, I noticed all the other dwarf fiddle leaf figs were in the same condition as mine. Not wanting to choose another unhealthy plant, I chose a small regular fiddle leaf fig that looked like its roots were in far better condition. I took it to checkout and while a different girl was ringing me up, we chatted about my plant and she said she noticed it was very root bound and that the lady who ‘diagnosed’ my plant was talking to the manager about talking to their supplier about making sure the plants they got were healthy plants next time — basically admitting it was their fault.
I’m definitely not going back to this place, and I suggest you find a different nursery. Their policy for selling you unhealthy plants is basically just «sucks to suck».

Lukas Nursery reminds me of home and is a quaint nursery, yet very large and a great selection. Every time I go, it’s always busy and the employees are very kind and helpful. I just harvested the Arugula that grew like wildflowers and added them to last nights grilled steaks with mushroom piquant and watermelon feta salad. I believe they grew for a bit too long as the flavor was somewhat strong but balanced with the other vegetables. Very surprised at how quickly this plant grew. I also purchased a Roma tomato plant, a sweet orange baby pepper plant, garlic chive and 2 cherry tomatoes. Excited to see what the new additions bring as the senior plants have been quite fruitful.

Lukas is usually helpful and has good selection, but went there on Thursday, not many customers and yet could still not get help. I asked a man for help, he said let him help this lady first and then he would help us. Then instead of coming back started chit chatting with someone else. I went to customer service and waited.forever. still didn’t get help so I left empty handed. Was planning on buying a tree.

Butterfly encounter, OK. The girl I was with really liked it so that made me happy. $ 6? A little overpriced.
Then went to buy a tree. Being winter I knew that most plants were not in the best condition so I kneww I needed help deciding.
I explained to one of the cashiers I needed help, she refered me to a «sales associate». Someone arrived and I explained that I needed a unique tree for a central and prominent location of my yard that was replacing another significant tree that I currently cut down.
She pointed me over to the tree section and said she would be there in a minute.
We waited, and waited and waited some more, Meanwhile noticing the pretty high prices on EVERYTHING.
Finally got disgusted and left, making a snide comment to her as we walked out.
Next day found a friendly and helpful nursery in Apopka and bought a tree for 8 bucks!
About a 900% discount on the average price at Lucas!

Amazing nursery … They have unique flowers and plants. A little pricer/​just a touch more than Lowes, but WORTH the extra couple dollars to buy from LOCAL vendors! Great place to take kids. The butterfly exhibit/​garden is beautiful and worth the trip alone and awesome gift store connected to butterfly exhibit! Always a fun time and you can always find a treasure for your garden here!

Absolutely love this place! Their plant selection is amazing. I have compared their prices to the big box stores and they are the same. The plants are definitely healthier at Lukas. I’m not sure of what type of guarantee they offer with their plants if any.
There is a butterfly encounter, but we didn’t experience it. Great idea for the kids, I believe it’s $ 6 to enter.
You could easily spent a few hours here. Thankfully there are public restroom and also a hotdog vendor.
So If you are looking to redo your landscape, this is a great place to check out. They have more varieties of plants than any other nurseries I’ve been to.

It has been years since I’ve visited Lukas Nursery, so on Mother’s Day my family decided to swing by so I could visit the butterflies. (I love butterflies.)
We spent a bit of time strolling through the nursery and picked up a couple plants (the kind that need minimal water, hopefully we won’t kill them.) The plant selection is very good. My only gripe was with the vegetables. I was looking for heirloom varieties of veggies, and I didn’t find much. To me it looked a lot like the selection you would find at Lowe’s or Home Depot, nothing special on the veggie front. The selection of herbs was much better, however, so that made up for it.
And now for the butterflies. As I mentioned it had been years since my last visit, and the prices had gone up. It’s only $ 6, but I remember it being around $ 3, and honestly, that’s about what it’s worth. There were hardly any butterflies inside! So sad. =(We actually saw several butterflies outside before we went in that I got great pictures of. Inside we saw one pretty one that looked to be half dead with it’s wigs all frayed. We saw a couple others flying around (like maybe 4 or 5). In the butterfly feeding area there were a few more. My youngest daughter was delighted to feed the butterfly Gatorade and it sat on her finger for a full minute, so that may have been worth the cost of admission. Almost.
So the butterfly encounter was a bit of let-​down. I probably won’t do that again. Well, maybe when I have grandchildren one day. But my kids have been there, done that.
Back in the butterfly encounter gift shop I decided it would be a fun project to buy some caterpillars. It was $ 10 for 5 caterpillars in a small cup with food. The gift shop employee who helped me was very rude (the cashier was nicer). She seemed really annoyed that I didn’t already know everything about raising caterpillars. She gave me instructions, but with a bit of a grouchy attitude. They were very busy and I suppose she didn’t want to be bothered, but I don’t want the things to die either, so I had questions. Anyway, the internet is friendly and a few days later the caterpillars have doubled in size and seem well on their way to butterfly-​ness. I hope they make it. I hope I have better luck with butterflies than I do with plants.

A very nice nursery with a large selection. I was very disappointed when I went looking for azaleas for a hedge. I researched what varieties I was interested in, and took some photos so I would know what I wanted. When I returned a few weeks later, they were having an azalea «sale». All the prices were the same, with a small «sale» sticker next to them. I was able o compare the pictures from a few weeks before to make sure I wasn’t mistaken. This seems very dishonest. I think i’ll go elsewhere. It’s a shame, it a very nice place.

This is such a nice place!
I really like Lukas because it feels like home. Everybody there is super friendly. They have a customer service desk which you are able to make appointments before you head out there. I personally recommend making a appointment on their website if you decide to go on the weekend. Colette is my favorite! She is so friendly and a really sweet lady. She LOVES plants! You can really see her passion when she’s walking around guiding you which plants are good for your life style.
The nursery is clean and inviting. At this time i think they are doing some renovation for the butterfly encounter or either they are expanding. I never actually been to the butterfly encounter.
Even if you don’t have a home and aren’t looking for shrubs or annuals to plant, they also offer herbs and veggies for a small garden. If you aren’t into that either, just go for a stroll and listen to the wind chimes in the background on a breezy day and say Hi to one of the «bears» on site.
TIP: One year guarantee for plants bought at Lukas (if it *gasp* dies). It may need a receipt or something tho — like the deceased plant…

I loved this cute little place. I took my 4 year old son to the butterfly encounter. It was $ 10.60 for the both of us. It’s free for 3 year old and under though. We went in and it was absolutely beautiful. Butterflies were all around and some would fly right at you. I love butterflies so this was the best for me. Apparently we even came for the wrong season which they explained to me before I paid which was very nice. Apparently, there are a lot more usually.
We went through the whole thing, took some great pictures. We went to try to feed the butterflies in the private room but we couldn’t figure it out. Well, when we left, the (by the way) VERY NICE lady asked us how we liked it and if we fed them. She then took us back in to help us which was very thoughtful. She helped us do it and my son got to hold a few butterflies and feed them.
Everyone there was so friendly and helpful. It was very sweet of the lady to let us back in and helped us. My son had a really good time and kept talking about it.
Also, there are so many nice, young guys there. My son talked one guy’s ear off and it was just impressive on how he took it. I tried to call him over and he was like, no he’s fine. It was very sweet. Everyone who works there was just over the top nice and not in a bad way.

Absolutely wonderful nursery. Huge selection, friendly and knowledgeable staff, and just so many beautiful plants, pots, and useful things for gardeners of all experiences.

Lukas has everything I need. Especially Zoysia. Because Zoysia is awesome and they have it anytime I want it. They also have a bunch of plants. Go get some plants from them.

I always enjoy learning from the staff at Lukas Nursery! There is always someone available to answer questions, even ridiculous ones! I have been learning how to grow my own butterflies because of them, one happy species at a time :)
The Butterfly Encounter is great fun if you have never fed a butterfly. Make sure you don’t pic the hottest part of the day!

When I first moved here I was disappointed in Lukas Nursery & Butterfly Encounter because they never seemed to have what I was looking for but I soon discovered it was because of my lack of knowledge about the area plants. Like most nurseries, Lukas Nursery & Butterfly Encounter is a retail operation that brings in the items most suited for sale (blooming) and changes a lot of their stock as it sells out. Not that I have a better idea of when to expect what, I’ve been very happy.
It’s a good idea to know the plant bloom cycle because you can buy your items when they first arrive and not wait until they are root bound and flowering. Ask at the desk when to expect any given plant, they’ll let you know when to expect them.
Meanwhile, I’ve found that if you ask at the desk, they’ll put requested items on a list and try to order them in. They also can provide reference data about plants, explain proper fertilizers to get for items like orchids and bulbs. They will also ask for help loading items like soil and mulch – I especially like the mushroom compost. They can also put you in touch with the man who sells and installs palm trees – we had several planted successfully.
We’ve purchased orchids, trees, shrubs, herbs, perennials, annuals, vines, ground cover very successfully – the majority have survived a year with no problems.
They do have a discount on items that don’t survive, keep your receipt. They also offer free dirt or manure for items that require a good solid planting or enriched soil.
The Butterfly Encounter is a showcase garden (small) surrounded by plants that will help attract butterflies to your garden. (We had to stop our yard treatment service because it was killing the butterflies). They also have gifts here, and a large area where you can buy pond supplies, planters, décor, fountains and other items.
Check their hours of operation before heading over, just because their is sunshine doesn’t mean they are open.

Lukas Nursery is located in Oviedo FL, just off 426 and Slavia Road before the Red Bug Lake intersection. This nursery offers any type of plant, treatment and great advice that anyone could ever need. Join their mailing list to be notified of free classes, special events and sales.
Hubby and/​or I pop in here regularly for their custom potting soil, annuals, bushes, trees, bulbs, herbs, veggies, ground covers… you name it. We have had great success with their plants over the years and are always happy to get great pointers from the amazing staff. Susan continues to solve any problem or answer any question off the top of her head and with a smile.
We bought their calendar for the first time this year and got access to some monthly coupons. Most recent visit filled our front box with a variety of sun loving colorful blooms (pic) and tons of their great potting soil.
I have also enjoyed the butterfly encounter solo and with visiting family, it’s wonderful for shutterbugs. I have some lovely pics of some beautiful butterflies. It’s also great for kids, there is some nice information, various stages of the butterflies life and a special feeding screened in area where they can dip their fingers in «nectar» to feed interested butterflies.