Georgia Gardens

Atlanta Botanical Garden: 1345 Piedmont Avenue Northeast, Atlanta, GA 30309 (404)876-5859.

• This remarkable Garden showcases 15 acres of cultivated plants environmentally suited to the southeastern United States. The exhibits are organized into three collections: the Display Garden Collections (an herb garden, vegetable garden/orchard, water gardens, ornamental grasses/turf plots, perennial borders, fragrance garden, vine arbor, southern bulb collection, rock garden, drought-tolerant hillside, winter garden, hardy cacti and succulents, iris garden, hardy palms, southern conifer collection, carnivorous plant bog (watch your step!), Japanese garden, a coastal plain garden and a children's garden), The Upper Woodlands Collections (wildflower garden, backyard wildlife habitat, fern glade, and camellia collection), and the Storza Woods (being restored to a Piedmont hardwood forest). The Fuqua Conservatory contains over 2,000 orchids.

Atlanta History Center: 130 West Paces Ferry Road, Atlanta, GA 30305-1366 (404)814-4000.

• The Museum features a number of gardens: the Mary Howard Gilbert Memorial Quarry Garden (trees, plants, and shrubs that predate European settlement and are indigenous to Georgia's piedmont and coastal plain regions), the Cherry Sims Asian American Garden (Asian and American plants in a contemporary landscape design), the Frank A. Smith Memorial Rhododendron Garden (showcasing a new gardening style developed in Atlanta to better address the topography and needs of the city's urban forest), the Swan House (terraced front lawn and boxwood garden), the Tullie Farm (plants used in the 1840s for cooking, medicine, cosmetics and dye), and Swan Woods Trail (through 10 acres of mature forests of oak, hickory, and pine and an advanced secondary growth of pines with an understory of shrubs and hardwoods).

Callaway Gardens: U.S. Hwy. 27, P.O. Box 2000, Pine Mountain, GA 31822-2000 (800)225-5292.

• A remarkable 2,500 acres of cultivated plants including the world's largest display of hollies, more than 700 varieties of azaleas and a seemingly endless variety of wildflowers, can be viewed from walking trails or a scenic drive. Other attractions include the Sibley Horticultural Center (an indoor-outdoor garden/greenhouse complex), the Day Butterfly Center (the largest glass-enclosed tropical butterfly conservatory in North America), Mr. Cason's Vegetable Garden (producing more than 400 varieties of vegetables, fruits and herbs and is the Southern filming site of the television show The Victory Garden, and the Callaway Brothers Azalea Bowl (40 acres showcasing 4,000 hybrid and native azaleas as well as pond cypress, sweet bay magnolia, ground cedar, Japanese iris, oak, pine, fern, hemlock, grancy greybeard, camellia, holly, witch hazel, maple and dogwood).

The [Jimmy] Carter Center: 453 Freedom Parkway, Atlanta, GA 30307 (404)331-3900.

• The Carter Center includes a 37 acre wooded park, that contains a formal garden, wildflower meadow, cherry orchard and waterfalls tucked between two small lakes. Visitors can stroll through the Rose Garden, which is home to 400 plants and 80 varieties, including the coral Rosalynn Carter Rose, or view the serene Japanese Garden, designed by Master Gardener Kinsaku Nakane. 

Fernbank Science Center: 156 Heaton Park Drive, NE, Atlanta, GA 30307 (404)378-4311.

• This educational center includes Fernbank Forest (a 65-acre tract of relatively undisturbed mature mixed hardwood forest with labeled plants open for self-guided tours), two Victorian greenhouses (at 1256 Briarcliff Road) featuring tropical and succulent plants, and the Robert L. Staton Rose Garden (at 767 Clifton Road) with over 1,300 roses. Don't miss the Home Composting Demonstration Site behind the main building, which includes a vegetable garden, a butterfly garden and different species of ornamental plants.

Founders Memorial Garden: 325 South Lumpkin Street, Athens, GA 30602 (Garden Club of Georgia) (706)227-5369).

• America's first garden club -- the Ladies Garden Club of Athens -- is memorialized by these lovely gardens, including a formal boxwood garden, two courtyards, a retrace, a perennial garden, and an arboretum. The garden was created by the Garden Club of Georgia which has an excellent web description and photos.

Fred Hamilton Rhododendron Garden: Georgia Mountain Fairgrounds, US Highway 76 W, Hiawassee, GA 30546.

• Overlooking Lake Chatuge, this extensive rhododendron garden displays over 400 varieties and 2,000 plants.

Georgia Golf Hall of Fame’s Botanical Gardens: One Eleventh Street, Augusta, GA 30901 (706)724-4443.

• This 17 acre home of the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame features 8 acres of display gardens including a Rose Garden (with 800 varieties of miniature roses), a Formal Garden, an Asian Garden, a Tropical Garden, a Pergola Garden, a Coastal Garden, a Butterfly Garden, an Azalea Garden, a Xeriscape Garden, a Bulb Garden, a Grass Garden, and a Cottage Garden. Larger than life bronze statues of golf greats provide additional interest in this unique and lovely attraction.

Georgia Southern Botanical Garden: 1505 Bland Avenue, Georgia Southern University, P.O. Box 8039, Statesboro, GA 30460-8039 (912)871-1114.

• In keeping with the Garden's mission to promote knowledge and appreciation of the diversity and importance of the native plants, animals, and ecology of Georgia, particularly those of the Coastal Plain, the Garden contains an extensive collection of plants native to Southeast Georgia.

The Guido Gardens: 600 North Lewis Street, US Highway 121 North, Metter, GA 30439. (912)685-2222.

• Home to a television production studio, Guido Gardens features ornamental plantings among waterfalls, fountains, koi and goldfish ponds, a stream, arbors and gazebos, a teahouse, and a Prayer Chapel.

Isaiah Davenport House Museum: 324 East State Street, Savannah, GA 31401-3411 (912)236-8097.

• A garden graces this 1815 Federal-style brick house whose preservation became the founding of the Historic Savannah Foundation. Now a museum, it is furnished to reflect the life of its first occupants.

Lockerly Arboretum: 1534 Irwinton Road off Highway 441 South, Milledgeville, GA 31061 USA (912)452-2112.

• This 45 acre arboretum offers, in addition to nature trails showcasing shrubs and trees, an herb garden, iris, daylily beds, a rhododendron garden, a vineyard, bulb and perennial gardens, a butterfly garden and a tropical and desert greenhouse.

Massee Lane Gardens: American Camellia Society, One Massee Lane, Fort Valley, GA 31030 (912)967-2358.

• Headquarters of the American Camellia Society, the nine-acres of Gardens display a world renowned collection of camellias. As a lovely bonus, visitors will discover the Abendroth Japanese Garden, the Scheibert Rose Garden, and beautiful plantings of daffodils, daylilies, chrysanthemums, azaleas, flowering trees, annuals and perennials.

Meadow Garden: 1320 Independence Drive, Augusta, GA 30901 (706)724-4174.

• The grounds of this former home of a signer of the Declaration of Independence are landscaped in plants and herbs of the period.

Meadowlark Gardens: 2617 Newnan Road, Griffin, GA 30223 (770)228-0974.

• These beautiful southern gardens are home to hundreds of rare trees and plants, a beautiful collection of deciduous magnolias, and thousands of both English and American boxwoods. Dozens of pathways and allees meander through cozy garden rooms throughout the property.

Oak Hill and The Martha Berry Museum: Veterans Memorial Highway (GA Loop 1) and Martha Berry Highway (U.S. 27), P.O. Box 490189, Mt. Berry, GA 30149 (706)291-1883 or (800)220-5504.

• The museum grounds offer elegant gardens and nature trails including the Formal Garden, the Goldfish Garden, the Bridal Walk, the Sundial Garden, the Sunken Garden, the Fernery Nature Trail, the Catfish Pond, and functioning greenhouses.

Polk County Historical Society Museum and Gardens: 311 N. College Street, P.O. Box 203, Cedartown, GA 30125 (770)748-0073.

• Local artifacts, films, art festivals are housed the 1921 former Hawke's Childrens' Library.
  

State Botanical Garden of Georgia: University of Georgia, 2450 S. Milledge Avenue, Athens, GA 30605 (706)542-1244.

• This marvelous 313 acre collection of gardens includes an International Garden (11 gardens depicting the geographic origin of plants, the plant hunters who sought them, and the forces that drove the plant hunters), Shade Garden, Rose Garden, Native Flora Garden, Annual/Perennial Garden, Dahlia Garden, Trial Garden, Rhododendron Collection, Groundcover Collection and Native Azalea Collection and more. Five miles of nature trails meander through the gardens.

Taylor-Grady House: 634 Prince Avenue, Athens, GA 30601(706)549-8688.

• A Greek Revival mansion built in the 1840 is a National Historic Landmark. The thirteen elegant columns represent the 13 colonies. A recent grant will allow more restoration of the garden. Watch for the small holes in the kitchen walls for pigeons to come in -- and wind up as dinner.

University of Georgia Greenhouse: Botany Department, Athens, GA 30602-7271 (706)542-3732.

• 22,000 square feet of greenhouses showcase collections of ferns and fern allies, cycads, unique gymnosperms, arid plants, tropical plants, and carnivorous plants.

Vines Botanical Gardens: 3500 Oak Grove Road, Loganville, GA 30239 (770)466-7532.

• The 18,000 square foot manor house is embellished by 25 acres of garden, including Native Azaleas, the V-Bed Area, the Winter Garden, the Memorial Garden, the Reflection Pool and Border, the Whimsical Garden (exhibiting "yard art"), the Ornamental Grass Garden, Pappy's Garden, the Woodland Walk, the Brook Garden (with waterfalls), the Hardy Tropical Garden, the Southscape, the Water Garden, the Arbor/Patio Cabana, the Culinary Garden, the Asian Garden, Lakeside, the Island Garden, the White Garden (with a Wedding Gazebo), the Mermaid Fountain, the Rose Garden and the Rose Compass. Antique European statuary graces the gardens.

Waddell Barnes Botanical Garden: Macon State College, 100 College Station Drive, Macon, GA 31206-5144 (912)471-2780.

• The College is in the early stages of making the entire campus into a recognized botanical garden. The web site tracks the progress of this laudable project.

Zoo Atlanta: Grant Park, 800 Cherokee Avenue Southeast, Atlanta, GA 30315 (404)624-5620.

• This 110 year old 40 acre zoo offers over 1,000 animals, representing 250 species of animals from all over the world. The Zoo believes in providing excellent natural environments for its creatures and extends that commitment to its visitors as well by providing beautiful grounds, winding paths, lush plants and trees.