[3] Woodward began to spend the winters in St. Augustine, Florida in the 1880s and by the end of 1889 she had joined Martin Johnson Heade and the other artists at Henry M. Flagler's Ponce de Leon Hotel.
[1] [2]By 1890, her younger sister, Libby, would sometimes travel to Florida with due to her increasingly ill health in the hope that it would extend her life.
[3] Woodward was disappointed in the Ancient City because it was not as tropical as she had hoped, so she traveled throughout Florida searching for exotic plants and flowers.
She was told of how beautiful Palm Beach was and made the arduous trip south to discover the true tropical foliage she was longing for.
By 1889 Woodward was spending time in Palm Beach and Jupiter, painting outside amid what was then largely jungle and swampland inhabited by panthers, bears, and numerous alligators.
She brought her watercolor sketches of that area back to St. Augustine where she joined her friend Martin Johnson Heade and the other artists at Henry M. Flagler's Ponce de Leon Hotel.
Flagler listened to Laura and her friend, was compelled by her art, and bought property in the same locations depicted in Woodward's paintings.