A little demo showing how the "visible" and "managed" property can be used to make a node disappear in such a way that the layout pane / container can reclaim the space previously occupied by the now invisible node.

VisibleManagedDemo.java

package uk.co.senapt.desktop;

import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.geometry.Insets;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.CheckBox;
import javafx.scene.control.Label;
import javafx.scene.layout.HBox;
import javafx.scene.layout.VBox;
import javafx.stage.Stage;

/**
 * A little demo showing how the "visible" and "managed" property can be used
 * to make a node disappear in such a way that the layout pane / container can
 * reclaim the space previously occupied by the now invisible node.
 */
public class VisibleManagedDemo extends Application {

    @Override
    public void start(Stage primaryStage) {

        Label label1 = createLabel("Label 1");
        Label label2 = createLabel("Label 2");
        Label label3 = createLabel("Label 3");
        Label label4 = createLabel("Label 4");

        CheckBox visibleBox = new CheckBox("Visible");
        CheckBox managedBox = new CheckBox("Managed");

        visibleBox.setSelected(true);
        managedBox.setSelected(true);

        label2.visibleProperty().bind(visibleBox.selectedProperty());
        label2.managedProperty().bind(managedBox.selectedProperty());

        HBox hBox1 = new HBox(10, new Label("Label 2 settings:"), visibleBox, managedBox);

        HBox hBox2 = new HBox(10, label1, label2, label3, label4);
        hBox2.setStyle("-fx-background-color: lightgray; -fx-padding: 20");

        VBox vBox = new VBox(20, hBox1, hBox2);
        vBox.setFillWidth(false);
        vBox.setPadding(new Insets(20));

        primaryStage.setTitle("Visible / Managed Demo");
        primaryStage.setScene(new Scene(vBox));
        primaryStage.sizeToScene();
        primaryStage.centerOnScreen();
        primaryStage.show();
    }

    private Label createLabel(String text) {
        Label label = new Label(text);
        label.setStyle("-fx-background-color: orange; -fx-background-radius: 4; -fx-padding: 20;");
        label.setPrefSize(200, 200);
        return label;
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        launch();
    }
}