10,000 children exploring with hands-on field trips and 350,000 visitors enjoying free admission to more than 20 unique gardens and 10,000 living plants -- these are just a few of the impressive numbers our own Birmingham Botanical Gardens can boast. Each one represents an opportunity to celebrate what’s growing and going on at Alabama’s largest living museum.

Did you know that the Bruno Vegetable Garden produces 1.5 tons of fresh produce to feed our hungriest citizens through donations to Magic City Harvest?

Or that The Gardens has the largest public horticulture library in the United States right there is its main building? Part of the Jefferson County Library System, the library loans more than 7,000 items every year.

Or that The Gardnebs' horticultural therapy program, the only one in the state, recently won the 2009 John Walker Community Service Award from the American Horticultural Therapy Association. The program, which uses gardening as a rehabilitation and life-enrichment tool for people of all ages with intellectual and developmental disabilities, physical limitations, mental and emotional impairment or other special needs, is managed by Horticultural Therapy Coordinator Susan Grimes with help from a team of dedicated volunteers.

According to Grimes, only two other public gardens have won this national award. Benefiting from this work are United Cerebral Palsy, Children’s Hospital, St. Martin’s in the Pines and Putnam Middle School.

What draws do so many people to this site just off U.S. 280?

Some come to celebrate one of more than 1,000 public and private events each year, from a wedding in the rose garden to the recent fall plant sale. Others enjoy learning at an educational seminar, lecture or workshop, one of many presented throughout the year for children as well as adults.

The site is open 365 days a year, offering inspiration and education for the millions who make gardening the number one hobby in America.

You can choose from the Southern Living Garden, with its special living plant collection; the Wildflower Garden, with more than 400 different varieties of Alabama native plants, the internationally known Japanese Gardens with its traditionally crafted tea house and special bonsai collection; the Fern Glade, with more than 100 varieties of ferns; the Garden Conservatory, with many exotic plants that require a hothouse to nurture them, or the Herbarium

You can explore more than 67 acres over miles of serene paths for walking or jogging, and enjoy more than 30 works of outdoor sculpture. Inside the Garden Center is a rotating collection of artwork, as well as the home of the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, which offers expert gardening help and a plant diagnostic laboratory

You can get lots of helpful information from the Plant Information Center and Regional Horticulture Hotline managed by ACES experts and Master Gardeners.

There are also plenty of opportunities to volunteer, with programs such as Horticultural Therapy as well as nurturing plants for the annual fundraising sales.

Staff and volunteers from the Gardens also reach outside the grounds to nurture relationships near and far, from ties to the Japan government and Sister and Friendship Cities there to native seed exchange with Wuhan Botanical Gardens, Wuhan, China, and high-elevation plant exploration in Thailand and Vietnam.

In cooperation with Little Garden Club and Red Mountain Garden Club, staff members from the Gardens are part of a push to replant native seedlings in the city’s George Ward Park. Director of Education Henry Hughes collected and germinated blackjack oak, post oak and red hickory seeds from older trees in the park. The goal is to regenerate the soil’s organic nutrients enough that the native trees can germinate naturally.

Much has happened since 1960, when Birmingham Mayor James W. Morgan spearheaded the movement to establish Birmingham Botanical Gardens following a master plan developed by the curator of the Montreal Botanical Gardens. The Gardens officially opened in 1964 as a public-private partnership supported by the City of Birmingham and the Birmingham Botanical Society, and continues as a part of the Birmingham Parks & Recreation Board.

For more information, call the main information line at 414-3900 or check out a virtual tour on The Gardens' website.

Hours:
Birmingham Botanical Gardens, sunrise to sunset, 365 days a year.
Library, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday, 2 to 5 p.m.
Leaf & Petal at The Gardens Gift Shop, Monday-Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The Gardens Café by Kathy G, open Tuesday – Saturday 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
To arrange a specialty tour or if you have any questions, contact the volunteer coordinator at 414-3962.