Abbott Cotten
Martin Ravine Garden (#1 on the map): University of the South, Texas Avenue,
Sewanee, TN
37383 (931)598-1000.
- "Abbo's Alley", as the students call it, follows a stream
through the campus and features a collection of indigenous and cultivated trees,
shrubs, and herbaceous plants.
Arboretum at Interstate
Packaging: Highway 47 North,
White Bluff, TN 37187-0789 (615)797-9000.
- A
fish, greenhouse and over 60 species of trees and shrub make this Arboretum a
favorite. It is also a planting site of the American Chestnut Association.
Armstrong
Lockett House and W. P. Tomes Memorial Gardens: 2728 Kingston Pike,
Knoxville, TN 37919 (865)637-3163.
- This 1834 house is ornamented by 7 garden
terraces from the house to the river.
Blount Mansion: 200 West Hill Avenue, P.O. Box 1703, K
noxville, TN 37902
(865)525-2375.
- The frontier capitol of Tennessee, this historic house offers the
lovely Colonial Revival gardens.
Chattanooga
Choo Choo Gardens: 1400 Market Street,
Chattanooga, TN 37402
Inn:(423)266-5000.
- This beautifully restored railroad terminal (now part of a
Holiday Inn where you can stay on restored Victorian train cars) has a water
garden (with 400 fish), an herb garden (over 50 varieties), an All America Rose
Selections rose garden (800 bushes), a daylily collection (184 varieties).
Chattanooga Nature Center: 400
Garden Road,
Chattanooga, TN 37419 (423)821-1160.
- This environmental education
center features a scent garden, plus wildlife exhibits, a children's discovery
room, a 1,700-foot Wetland Walkway, and a wildlife rehabilitation clinic.
Chattanooga Zoo: 1101
McCallie Avenue,
Chattanooga, TN 37404 (423)697-1322.
- This 3 1/2 acre zoo offers
150 exotic and native mammals, reptiles and birds, including a new naturalistic
spider monkey exhibit.
Cheekwood Botanical
Garden: 1200 Forrest Park Drive,
Nashville, TN 37205 (615)353-8000.
- The 55
acres of beautiful grounds surrounding the art museum are dedicated to a
botanical garden. Gardens include the Howe Wildflower Garden, the Herb Study
Garden, the Iris Collection (50 Dykes Medal winners), the Harrison Daffodil
Garden (200 cultivars), the Virginia Peck Daylily Garden (100 cultivars),
Perennial Gardens (pastel cottage garden, dahlia garden, Wills Perennial Garden,
Burr Display Garden, and more), the Bridley Orchid Houses (2 greenhouses), and
the the Julia Bainbridge Camellia House.
Cragfont:
200 Cragfont Road,
Castalian Springs, TN 37031 (615)452-7070.
- General James Winchester, Revolutionary War hero,
built his frontier mansion on a rocky bluff in Middle Tennessee. The
1802 mansion displays extensive gardens and a cemetery.
Dixon
Gallery and Gardens: 4339 Park Avenue,
Memphis, TN 38117 (901)761-2409.
- The
17 acres surrounding the gallery feature park-like English landscaping with
vistas and formal gardens including a two acre woodland garden, a cutting
garden, greenhouses, the Camellia Conservatory and statuary.
Falcon Rest Mansion and Gardens: 2645 Faulkner Springs Road,
McMinnville, TN 37110 (931)668-4444.
- Located in McMinnville, TN, "the nursery capitol of the world",
the 10,000 square foot Falcon Rest Mansion was built in 1896
by "Gorilla Pants" manufacturer Clay Faulkner. Over the past decade, an extensive landscaping program has been initiated with
formal gardens made up of hundreds of evergreens and flowering shrubs from local nurseries. Features include a courtyard,
fountain, walkways, and statues that dot the mansion's five-acre grounds.
Gardens at Sunshine Hollow:
198 County Road 52 (off I-75 Exit 42),
Athens, TN 37303 (423)745-4289,
(800)669-2005.
- Enjoy extensive gardens set in a 160 acre forested hollow with
over 1750 varieties of roses, daylilies, dahlias, hosta, cannas, iris, ferns and
other perennials. 3000 linear feet of terraced beds are contoured around the
hillsides surrounded by temperate forest areas of mature trees. Thousands of
annuals are displayed in the beds as well as hundreds of hanging baskets,
planters and vines.
Farmhouse
Gallery and Gardens: 121 Covered Bridge Lane,
Unicoi, TN 37692
(423)743-8799.
- The Art Gallery of artist Johnny Lynch displays grounds with
extensive perennial and wildflowers gardens.
Gaylord Opryland Hotel - The Delta and the Cascade Conservatory: 2800
Opryland Drive,
Nashville, TN 37214-1297 (615)889-1000 or (888)976-1999.
- This
hotel offers two horticultural phenomena: the Delta, a 4 1/2 acre indoor river
and garden, and the Cascade Conservatory, a 4 1/2 acre interior tropical garden.
The Hermitage, Home of Andrew Jackson:
4580 Rachel's Lane, H
ermitage, TN 37076 (615)889-2941.
- Home to Andrew Jackson,
this elegant 1834 brick home displays a re-created period garden known as
Rachel's Garden and designed in 1819 by English gardener William Frost. The
central flower beds, in a formal geometric design, are bordered by bricks made
at the property's kiln. Among the many varieties of trees, shrubs and
groundcovers typical of the era are English boxwood, crepe myrtle, chestnut
rose, lilac, honeysuckle, Southern magnolia, weeping willow, crocus, tulip,
narcissus, daylily and various herbs.
Historic Sam Davis Home and Plantation: 1399 Sam Davis Road,
Smyrna, TN 37167 (615) 459-2341.
- 168 acres of farmland surround the boyhood home of Sam Davis, a confederate her. The property includes an herb garden, 100 acres planted
to cotton, and is certified as a Level I Arboretum by the Tennessee Urban Forestry Council.
Ijams Nature Center: 2915
Island Home Avenue,
Knoxville, TN 37920 (865)577-4717.
- This 275-acre wildlife sanctuary and environmental center, dedicated to public use in the 1960s
through the efforts of the Knoxville Garden Club and Knoxville City and County, is a diverse natural area.
Attractions include the Visitor Center with exhibits, the Home Site with greenhouse and organic garden, the
Tennessee River Boardwalk, a Raptor Enclosure and amphitheater, and Jo's Grove Nature Playscape for children. The adjoining 10 miles of natural
surface trails plus a stretch of paved Greenway through the sanctuary feature woodlands, meadows, ponds, Mead's Quarry, Maude Moore's Cave, a
rock garden, a wildflower trail, a labelled tree trail, and a beech grove.
James K. Polk Ancestral Home:
301 W. 7th Street,
Columbia, TN 38401.
- Home of the 11th president, James K.
Polk, this house's landscaped grounds feature a formal boxwood garden, a white
azalea garden, and a wildflower garden.
Knoxville Zoological Gardens: 3333 Woodbine Avenue (Off I-40 near Exit
392), K
noxville, TN 37914 (423)637-5331.
- This fine zoo, now expanding, includes
current exhibits labeled Hamadryas Baboon, Aldabran Tortoise, Reptiles, River
Otter, White Rhinocerous, Red Panda, African Penguin, Birds of Central America,
Kid's Zoo, African Plains, Red Wolf, Cape Hunting Dog, Pridelands, Gorilla
Valley, Cheetah Savannah, and Chimp Ridge.
Knoxville Botanical Garden and Arboretum: 2743 Wimpole Avenue,
Knoxville, TN 37914 (865)862-8717.
- Located on a ridge just 5 minutes from downtown, this 44 acre Botanical Garden is site of
the former Howell Nurseries,
which operated for 217 years (yes, 217 years!) before closing in 2003. The gardens include
whimsical round stone buildings, stone-sided greenhouses and secret garden paths and alleys. Today, mature specimens of
rare and unusual trees and shrubbery remain, surrounded by thousands of feet of beautiful stone walls that define the planting areas.
Points of interest include the Howell residence and garden, the Stone Terraces,
the Row Garden, the Martha H. Ashe Garden, the Stone Greenhouse, the Knoxville Garden Club Danae Garden and the Mary Nell Johnson Perennial Border,
the Quilt Square Tulip Pattern, the Dogwood Nature Trail, the Viburnum Cottage, the Kentucky Coffee Tree, the Bamboo Forest,
the Cedars of Lebanon, and a 100 year old Japanese Maple.
Magevney House: 198
Adams Avenue,
Memphis, TN 38103 (901)320-6370.
- This small 1830s clapboard house, one of the city's
oldest homes,
showcases mid-1800s life for the middle class and includes an herb garden and a
grape arbor.
Memphis Botanic
Garden: 750 Cherry Road,
Memphis, TN 38117 (901)576-4100.
- Comprising 120
acres of Audubon Park, this splendid botanic garden displays 2,000 species and
varieties in 24 formal gardens, including the Japanese Garden of Tranquility,
the Little Garden Club Sensory Garden and the TN Bicentennial Iris Garden (5
acres with several hundred varieties), the Dahlia Garden, the Daylily Trial
Garden, the Magnolia Garden, the Conifer Garden, the Rose Garden (with 4,000
plants), the Wildflower Garden, the Azalea and Dogwood Trail, the Test Garden,
the Daffodil Trail, the Cactus Garden and the Perennial Garden. A 3,000 square
foot conservatory displays 500 tropical varieties.
Nashville Zoo at Grassmere: 3777
Nolensville Road,
Nashville, TN (615)833-1534.
- This park-like zoo contains
naturalistic exhibits for American Black Bear, Grey Wolf, Underwater Viewing,
North American Otter, Bald Eagle, Waterfowl, White-Tailed Deer, Przewalski's
Horse, Golden Eagle, an Aviary, Pelican Pond, American Bison/Elk, and Cougar
plus the Unseen New World Exhibit (75 species of reptiles, amphibians, insects,
mammals and birds). Visitors will also view kangaroos, tigers, elephants and
zebras. Grassmere Farm offers a reconstruction of an 1800s farm complete with
animals.
Oaklands Historic House
Museum: 800 N. Maney Avenue,
Murfreesboro, TN 37133 (615)893-0022.
- Demonstrating the life of a mid-Victorian planter family, this former plantation
with an Italianate style mansion now sits on 10 acres of grounds.
Oak Ridge Forest and
Arboretum, University of Tennessee: 901 S. Illinois Avenue (State Highway
62),
Oak Ridge, TN 37830 (865)483-3571.
- This 2,260 acre forest contains a 250 acre research and education
facility displays 2,500 native and exotic woody plant specimens representing 800
species, varieties, and cultivars. Special collections include Azaleas,
Conifers, Crabapples, Dogwoods, Hollies, Junipers, Magnolias, Oaks,
Rhododendrons, and Viburnums. Groupings by habitat include Central China,
Southern coastal Plains, California Forest, Heath Forest, Polish Forest, and
Cumberland Gorge. Four nature trails with trail markers and interpretive signs
allow visitors access.
(Ivan) Racheff House and Gardens: 1943 Tennessee Avenue,
Knoxville, TN (865)522-6210.
- The former home of a steel magnate who love gardens
(now on the National Register of
Historical Places) is surrounded by beautiful gardens that Mr. Racheff loved to share with passers-by and at his death
left to the Tennessee Federation of Garden Clubs. Features include colorful
formal gardens, a wildflower garden, the fern cobble, a Japanese-inspired Tea House,
a pool with water plants and goldfish, and shaded lawns.
Reflection
Riding Arboretum and Botanical Garden: 400 Garden Road,
Chattanooga, TN
37419 (423)821-9582.
- This 300 acre botanical garden, the collaborative work of
several landscape architects, features wildflowers, ferns, vines, shrub, and
trees that grow naturally in the Southeast Tennessee region. A "riding" is a
road winding through a natural landscape.
Rhododendrons at
Roan Mountain State Park: 1015 Highway 143,
Roan Mountain, TN 37687
(423)772-0190 or Cabin Reservations: (800)250-8620.
- This state park features one
of the largest natural Catawba rhododendron gardens in the world.
Rippavilla Plantation: 5700 Main
Street,
Spring Hill, TN 37174 (931)486-9037.
- A charming story lies behind the
building of this lovely plantation home, which includes gardens and a corn maze.
Scarritt-Bennett Center: 1008
19th Avenue South,
Nashville, TN 37212 (615)340-7500.
- This 10 acre former
college site, now a retreat center, is an arboretum campus that can be viewed on
a self-guided tour. It also features a demonstration organic garden named "In
Defense of Creation".
Shakespeare
Garden (#89 on map): University of the South, Tennessee Avenue (behind Elliott
Dormitory),
Sewanee, TN 37383 (931)598-1000.
- This small garden surrounded by a
privet hedge displays herbs and ornamental plants cultivated by Shakespeare or
named in his works.
Trial Gardens:
University of Tennessee, Neyland Drive (Next to UT Veterinary Teaching
Hospital),
Knoxville, TN (865)974-7324.
- These trial gardens include lovely
landscaped sections as well as display beds.
University of Tennessee Botanical
Gardens:
Martin, TN 38238 (901)587-7650.
- The campus is a registered
botanical garden.
Warner Park Rose Garden: 1254 E. 3rd Street,
Chattanooga, TN 37404
(423)697-9700.
- This 56 acre multi-facility public park features rose gardens
including an All-America Rose Selections public garden.
Water Garden: 5212 Austin Road,
Chattanooga, TN 37343 (423)870-2838.
- A commercial water garden supply center
with ornamental ponds and "hundreds of water features".