1873 Oak Street – Gesneriad Research Foundation

This mediterranean revival was designed by Thomas Reed Martin and built in 1925.

Known as the Gesneriad Research Foundation as a result of its long-time owner, Hans Wiehler and his family, up until 2020.

Hans Wiehler was originally a staff member of the Marie Selby Botanical gardens and was named Hybridizer of the Year, in 1977 by the International Gesneriad Society.  According to a Sarasota Herald Tribune article on Oct. 23, 1977, Wiehler was in charge of Selby’s gesneriad collection, then considered the world’s largest.  As part of his work, he hybridized some of the species and genera.  At the time, he had made 34 intergeneric crosses.

The original Selby Gardens collection started with Wiehler’s own, begun at Cornell where he earned his masters degree.  It increased during his further graduate work at the university of Miami.  When he joined Selby’s staff, in 1974, he brought his collected to Sarasota in two huge moving vans.