Georgia Natural Wonder #272 - Atlanta Botanical Garden

[Top Row Dawg]

Georgia Natural Wonder #272 - Atlanta Botanical Garden

We are already at Piedmont Park with Georgia Natural Wonder #271, so we may as well move north to the sister Georgia Natural Wonder. The Atlanta Botanical Garden is a 30 acres botanical garden located adjacent to Piedmont Park in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia. Incorporated in 1976, the garden's mission is to "develop and maintain plant collections for the purposes of display, education, conservation, research and enjoyment." 


Renowned plant collections, beautiful displays, and spectacular exhibitions make the Atlanta Botanical Garden the loveliest place in town to visit or host an event in every season. The Garden has earned a reputation as one of the nation's foremost public gardens. Visit the Garden and feel human again.

Our first TRD Scrolling Nugget is The Garden Of Earthly Delights by the The United States of America.



History

Piedmont Park was transformed for the 1895 Cotton States and International Exposition, a major World's Fair showcasing Atlanta's post-Civil War recovery, with features like Lake Clara Meer and tropical gardens created for the event, which later became the Atlanta Botanical Garden. The fair's elaborate tropical gardens formed the basis for the modern Botanical Garden, now located within Piedmont park.


The arts and government exposition buildings flank the carillon, 1895. The granite steps and the lake, Clara Meer, are the only surviving features on the site of today’s Piedmont Park and Atlanta Botanical Gardens.


The stonework from the Cotton States Exposition. 

Following a petition by citizens of Atlanta in 1973, the garden was incorporated in 1976, as the private non-profit corporation Atlanta Botanical Garden Inc.. 



The garden incorporated the preexisting Dr. A. Leslie Stephens Memorial Bonsai Garden, now known as the Japanese Garden. 



Within a year Bill Warner, previously employed at Holden Arboretum in Ohio, was assigned office as the first executive director. He was soon followed by Ann L. Crammond in 1979. The following year marked a turning point in the history of the garden as a 50-year lease was negotiated with the city, securing the site of the Garden for years to come.


Treehouse Holden Arboretum in Ohio.

A number of promotional activities started taking place, including social events, major art exhibitions and the annual Garden of Eden Ball. The Atlanta Botanical Garden welcomed its 50,000th visitor within a mere three years after the lease was arranged - this was even before any permanent structures had been erected. 

 
Garden of Eden Ball.

In 1985, the Atlanta Botanical Garden built its first permanent structure, the Gardenhouse. 


Gardenhouse wraps around the Mediterranean-inspired Cox Courtyard and houses the majority of the Garden's administrative offices. 

Expansions following this were the Fuqua Conservatory in 1989. 



“Conservation” added to Atlanta Botanical Garden mission statement; Alston Overlook constructed in 1991. 

 

In 1992, “Concerts on the Lawn” held; Atlanta Botanical Garden hosts International Waterlily Society conference.

 

In 1995, the Iseli Award recognizes the Garden’s Southern Conifer Garden; Garden becomes founding member of the Georgia Plant Conservation Alliance.



In 1997, the Garden hosts International Carnivorous Plant Society Conference.



The Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Garden (1999), 

 

The Fuqua Orchid Center was added in 2002.



Blockbuster summertime exhibitions began in 2003 with TREEmendous TREEhouses. Cocktails in the Garden begins.

 
 
In 2004, the Atlanta Botanical Garden hosted an exhibition of glass art by Dale Chihuly titled "Chihuly in the Garden". The exhibit ran through the end of October and was extended until December 31, 2004. During the eight-month run, an estimated 425,000 attendees visited the exhibit. The peak per-day rates of 7,500 were double the previous single-day attendance record at the Garden. 

   

In 2005 Locomotion in the Garden featured G-scale model trains. 

 

On April 29, 2006, an exhibition of the sculpture of Niki de Saint Phalle opened to the public. These huge mosaic sculptures came to the Garden from France, Germany, and California. 

 

In 2007, the exhibition was David Rogers' Big Bugs and Killer Plants. 

 

2008 was Sculpture in Motion, Art Choreographed by Nature, a display of moving, kinetic art. 

 

In 2009, the Garden hosted an exhibition of the monumental bronze sculptures of Henry Moore. 

 

The new Visitor Center and Garden Gift Shop debut, and the SAGE green parking facility opens along with new gardens.

 
Gift shop to left of entrance. Henry Moore sculpture at time of image. SAGE Parking you have wind 6 times times to get to Monroe Drive entrance.

The summers of 2010 and 2011 showcased the Garden's green expansion. The Grand opening of the Canopy Walk, Edible Garden and Cascades Garden marks completion of expansion project nearly doubling the size of the Garden.


The Edible Garden not only showcases edible and medicinal plants but also hosts cooking demonstrations. The garden’s amphitheater is a venue for concerts and other events throughout the year.

In 2012, the Garden hosted Independent Visions, an exhibition of contemporary sculptures by nine artists. 

 

In 2013, the Garden unveiled Imaginary Worlds: Plants Larger than Life, made up of 19 mosaic culture sculptures. 

 

In 2016, Chihuly in the Garden open again with 19 installations throughout the Garden.

  
Chihuly still in the Garden permanent sculptures.

In 2017, the restaurant is renamed Longleaf, and a major new expansion opens, the Skyline Garden, offering breathtaking views of the city. 

 

In 2023, the Garden announces plans for major expansion by purchasing nearly 8 acres to the north which would place it contiguous to the Atlanta Beltline and allow for a second Garden entrance. 



In 2024 an unprecedented agreement is struck between the Garden and the Indian government that will allow the two to collaborate to document, collect and identify new plant species in vastly underexplored regions of the country, similar to a partnership the Garden shares with Vietnam. The Garden also encourages knowledge exchange, targeting plant groups such as Magnolias, Hydrangeas, Gingers and Begonia. The Garden hosts a regional conference of the Southeastern Partners in Plant Conservation to promote novel partnerships for plant conservation.

 
Arisaema mcmahanii, the new plant species, was discovered in Vietnam. Dracaena reflexa (commonly called song of India) is a tree native to Mozambique, Madagascar, Mauritius, and other nearby islands of the Indian Ocean.

Holiday Lights.

In the winter the Garden has a holiday light show. 



"Garden Lights, Holiday Nights" began in 2011 featuring displays created with more than 1 million lights, most of them LED. 



The following year, the show grew to more than 1.5 million lights and attracted more than 160,000 visitors.



The “Garden Lights, Holiday Nights” event transforms the garden during the winter season, making it a top attraction in Atlanta.

 

Green Expansion Plan

The Green Expansion Plan was a large-scale expansion project that was completed in the spring of 2010 that doubled the size of the Garden while modernizing them at the same time. The expansion plan encompassed the construction of a number of new facilities, the most noticeable of which are the new visitor center and 600-foot-long canopy walk.

 
TRD's recent date with his girlfriend, Jean, taking the Canopy Walk.

The plan was built around five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality. By employing an array of energy-saving strategies with environmental sustainability considered throughout the project and recycling any trees removed as a result of construction, considerable efforts were made to make this expansion eco-friendly. A 100,000-gallon cistern was installed underground in December 2007 to aid in water conservation; the cistern fills with only an inch and a quarter of rain and waters about 40% of the new gardens.

   
View of new sections of Botanical Gardens from the Canopy Walk. 

One striking feature of the new visitor center is the innovative green roof, with plants covering nearly 50% of the roof area. It provides natural cooling, sound insulation and additional garden area for visitors, and even a new wildlife habitat. The visitor center leads visitors to the canopy walk.



The garden's old parking lot is now a Edible Garden featuring an outdoor kitchen; this new garden reconnects people with food and healthful eating. And the final aspect of the garden expansion plan is the conversion of its old entry drive to a large cascades garden filled with tropical plants and gently flowing waterfalls. 

Canopy Walk

The Atlanta Botanical Garden is home to the Kendeda Canopy Walk, a 600-foot-long skywalk that allows the visitors to tour one of the city's last remaining urban forests from around 40 feet in the air through the treetops of the Storza Woods. The skywalk extends from a bluff in the Garden into the branches of oaks, hickories and poplars. The structure also provides an aerial view of the woodland garden below.

 
Internet image and TRD attempted panoramic of Canopy Walk.  

The Canopy Walk was built for $55 million and opened in 2010. It was originally set to open in 2009, but during its construction in 2008, the skywalk collapsed, killing one worker and injuring 18 others. 

 
TRD images. Nets are from Christmas Lights. 

Because of the uniqueness of the Canopy Walk, city leaders believed it would become an icon for Atlanta and it really has.

Earth Goddess

The Earth Goddess is a 25-foot sculpture that is a centerpiece of the Cascades Garden. 



It was the highlight of the "Imaginary Worlds" exhibition that was showcased in 2013–2014. It has since become a permanent part of the Cascades Garden.


Water flows from her hand.

Gardens within the Atlanta Botanical Garden

The Botanical Garden is composed of a number of smaller themed gardens. Each contains different landscapes to display a variety of plants. 


The botanical garden is a haven of diverse plant species spread across several landscapes. As you enter, you are greeted by several formal gardens, including a serene Japanese garden, a fragrant herb garden, and a vibrant rose garden. These gardens offer a unique opportunity to explore and appreciate the beauty and diversity of plant life. TRD images of the Japanese garden ......

 

Two woodland areas, the 5 acres Upper Woodland.


Bridge in Upper Woodlands from Canopy Walk. 

The 10 acres Storza Woods feature large trees and shade-loving flowers and undergrowth. 



The Children's Garden features whimsical sculptures, fountains, and interpretive exhibits on botany, ecology, and nutrition.  



The Ada Mae Pass Ivester Children's Garden at the Atlanta Botanical Garden is a 2.5-acre interactive, nature-based play space featuring a treehouse, rock climb, and a carnivorous plant bog.



In the northwest corner of Piedmont Park, this stunning 30-acre botanical garden has a Japanese garden, winding paths and the amazing Fuqua Orchid Center.

Dorothy Chapman Fuqua Conservatory

The 16,000 square feet Dorothy Chapman Fuqua Conservatory contains indoor exhibits of plants from tropical rainforests ......



and deserts. 

 

The rain forest room of the Fuqua Conservatory is also populated by tropical birds, turtles, and several exhibits of poison dart frogs, the last of which is a collaboration in conservation efforts with Zoo Atlanta. 

  
Dart's.

The Fuqua Conservatory is an organic biosphere and home to important collections of tropical palms and conifers; the Fuqua Orchid Center is home to the foremost collection of species orchids in the United States. Conservation gardens and amphibian displays highlight the Garden’s work with carnivorous plant bogs across the Southeast as well as endangered species of frogs from around the world. The Garden offers lovely indoor and outdoor rental options for elegant meetings and celebrations.

 
The Atlanta Botanical Garden is deeply involved in conservation and botanical research, focusing on the preservation of native plant species in Georgia. It offers a range of educational programs for all age groups, with classes and workshops in horticulture, art, and more.
 
Almost all TRD and girlfriend Jean images starting here. My second TRD Scrolling Nugget comes from The Seeds about Jean and me just tagging along.

 

Adjoining this building, the Fuqua Orchid Center contains separate rooms simulating the tropics and high elevations in order to house rare orchids from around the world.

   
TRD or Jean went overboard in the Orchid Center.

The Dorothy Chapman Fuqua Conservatory is a significant feature of the Atlanta Botanical Garden. It houses a variety of plants from tropical rainforests and deserts. The conservatory is not just about plants; it also hosts tropical birds, turtles, and an exhibition of poison dart frogs, adding an extra layer of interest for visitors.

Fuqua Orchid Center

The Fuqua Orchid Center is home to the largest collection of species orchids on permanent display in the U.S. and hosts a wintertime display known as Orchid Daze. Its unique Tropical High Elevation House provides the correct habitat for montane orchids and companion plants from around the equator at elevations of 6,000 to 10,000 feet. 

   
More TRD or Jean Orchid Center images.

An Air Washer System, technology adapted from the textile industry, was combined with traditional greenhouse heating and cooling to create this environment and allows rare orchids to thrive. The Tropical Display House is filled with fragrant orchids from around the world.

   

TRD Visit February 2026 With Jean

The first thing I recommend is to enter the place off Piedmont Avenue if there is not a crowd. You circle the parking deck from the Monroe entrance. If there is an event you can park low and take the elevator to the entrance, will leave it up to you. 

  
We went straight to the Canopy Walk. Already featured some TRD Canopy Walk images in post.

  
We were really up in the trees, there was a fellow taking down the Christmas lights. 


Decorative seating on Canopy Walk. 

  
Jean's images of the Canopy Walk.

 
Then we went through the tunnel under the Piedmont Road entrance.

  
Camilla Bushes provide excellent wintertime flowers in Georgia. 

  
The first flower of spring in Atlanta, the Daffodil. Beautiful trees in this part of the Botanical Garden. 

 
The Earth Goddess was in Wintertime mode.

 

Jean got some images of the Ice Goddess.

  

  
Squirrel action and Pansies are another Wintertime Atlanta flower. TRD telling Jean we need to head to Day Hall next. 

 
Jean walks in front of the Long Leaf Restaurant and TRD image of the Levy Parterre with the Chihuly sculpture in the center fountain. 

  
Jean image from the Alston Overlook. Her close up of Chihuly sculpture. TRD was resting after hike uphill from Canopy Walk. Had busted leg from fall few weeks earlier. 

Then we made our way to the Japanese Garden. No garden room has a richer history than the charming Japanese Garden. In the 1960s, the Atlanta Bonsai Society started a Japanese Garden on the site of the current one – long before the botanical garden was even established. Largely consisting of bonsai plants, it was then part of Piedmont Park. The society eventually gave it up. In 1980, the newly established Garden restored this site, replaced its white sand representing "pools" with a small pond and added stone walls and fences. The current design combines several styles of traditional Japanese gardens, including elements of hill-and-pond, courtyard and tea gardens. On the ground is a chozubachi stone basin used as a purification ritual before a tea ceremony, and the tea garden includes a waiting bench for reflecting and enjoying the garden.

 
You have to tilt your head a little for this image. Jean found a hidden marker.

The Moon Gate provides a vista through the garden. 



By design, nearly all plantings are green, except for spring-blooming azaleas and irises, and maples that change color in the fall. A large Virginia pine provides a focal point, along with trees such as Japanese maples (Acer palmatum), dwarf conifers and weeping Japanese persimmons. Just outside the gate is a collection of rare harp-string Nandina, bamboo popular in Japan from the 1600s to 1800s. The Japanese Garden is a popular location for intimate weddings.

 
Jean models the Moon Gate. 

An urban oasis in Midtown, the Garden includes 30 acres of outdoor gardens. 

  
We came upon the Great Lawn and went to the right to the Vine Arbor. We found a Tiny Door of Atlanta.

  
Found the Conifer Forest and a Frog sculpture.

Then we made our way into the Orchid Center. 

  

The orchid family is the largest and most diverse in the plant world, and its more than 25,000 species account for about 8 percent of all flowering plant species.

  
TRD Orchid images. 

  
The Center’s two display houses, which opened in 2002, contain a dazzling array of orchid species of all colors, sizes, scents and shapes. 

 
Featured collections include orchids of Madagascar, tropical Asian slipper orchids, Euglossine bee-pollinated orchids, high elevation genera and moth orchids.

  
I came around the corner and this young lady scared me like the Texas Bushman, she blended in with the flowers so well. More Jean images. She had a good eye, the Flower Lady. 

  
This indoor part of the Atlanta Botanical Garden is good any time of the year. We were visiting in February. 

Then we wandered the Fuqua Conservatory. Man, it was hot in there. 

  
Jean found the chocolate tree. 

  
Jean in the Rain Forest. Bad Ass turtle, stay on path.  Poisonous frog too, at least he was behind glass. 

  
TRD wanders the Rain Forest, as Jean took some more images. Found some more Orchids in here, 8% of all the flowers in the world. Jean going crazy with images. 

  
Too hot for some flowers. Flowers on my mind. Flowers stacked on top of each other.

 
Last of Jean Conservatory plant images.

Escaping the heat of the Conservatory to the Skyline Garden overlooking Piedmont Park. 


This garden used the stonework left over from the 1895 Cotton States Exposition.

  
TRD searching for 1895 Stonework. 

  
Beyond the metal steel fence is Piedmont Park. 

 
Pool and garden of the Skyline Garden. 


Jean at 1895 Stone Pool with Midtown Skyline in background. 


Can see tennis center and bandstand of Piedmont Park in distance.

  
Jean images. Can see Softball fields of Piedmont Park, skyline of Midtown, plants and trees of Skyline garden from Jean's view.


Looking back to Conservatory, where the arts and government exposition buildings flanked the carillon in 1895. 

  
We strolled the Robinson Gazebo to the Rock Garden and found another Frog. 


We had lunch back up by the Garden House. Had some King of Pops handcrafted popsicles. (Chocolate Sea Salt)

Discovered a side Sculpture garden.

  
First there was Pan. Others followed (Oh Look another frog). Whimsical Sculptures in the garden.

 
Priest with bird and head of Helen in the grass.

This expansive garden is home to a variety of landscapes featuring diverse plant species, making it a perfect destination for nature lovers and botany enthusiasts.

 
And I finally found someone to go with me so I can finish this post.

Jean bought me some flowers so I have a little Atlanta Botanical Garden in my new windows at the TRD penthouse.

  

Today's TRD Georgia Natural Wonder Gals are at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

  


The cat tells you this one was a good GNW Gal.