The University of Tennessee (UT) Gardens have been established to foster appreciation, education and stewardship of plants through horticultural gardens, displays, collections, educational programs and research.

The UT Gardens are a "living laboratory," a vital resource for the teaching, research and public service missions of the University of Tennessee. The Gardens are an educational facility that supports and integrates teaching, research and service relative to the needs of the Department of Plant Sciences, the University, green industry professionals and the general public.

The UT Gardens joined the American Conifer Society in the fall of 2005 due to the inspiration of regional ACS members. The Gardens helped host the 2006 ACS Annual Conference in Tennessee and received grant money from the ACS to support their conifer collection. Since joining the ACS, the UT Gardens have invested several thousand dollars in developing their conifer collection and adding permanent interpretive botanical labels. Since 2005, the conifer collection has grown from 70 specimens to over 365 specimens, representing 19 genera. The conifer collection has become a significant addition to the Garden and helps to fulfill the Garden's mission.

The Gardens support evaluation studies which provide information on the best plant materials for the mid-south and USDA Plant Hardiness Zones 6 and 7. They do this by evaluating performance and demonstrating the landscape use of every type of plant, from trees and shrubs to annuals, perennials, ornamental grasses and aquatic plants. The test gardens are important proving grounds for leading commercial seed and plant companies located around the world, who ultimately determine what plants reach the commercial market. Established in 1983 by the Department of Plant Sciences, the UT Gardens are recognized as one of 38 official All-America Selections test sites in the United States. The perennial collection contains more than 500 varieties while the herb garden features more than 350 varieties.

The Memphis Botanic Garden became the 16th ACS Reference Garden in the Southeast Region in 2013. The Dixon Garden and Gallery hosted our regional meeting in 2013, and many attendees also visited Memphis Botanic Garden since they are located directly across the street. If you haven't strolled the garden in person, we hope this overview will whet your appetite for a visit at some future date.

Memphis Botanic Garden strives to enhance lives by connecting people with nature, and by increasing awareness and appreciation of our environment. The 96-acre property includes 28 specialty gardens, which provide an in-depth look into various families of plants, flowers, and trees. The garden is known for its magnolia, holly, specimen conifer and Japanese maple collections.

In 1957, the Lumberman’s Club of America, together with landscape architect George Madlinger, established an arboretum in honor of W.C. Paul, a long-time member of the Memphis Men's Garden Club. Mr. Paul had dreamed of an arboretum for Memphis, and Audubon Park was the perfect location. W.C. Paul Arboretum was one of the projects that served as a catalyst for a section of the newly-established Gardens at Audubon Park to be developed as a botanical garden. In 1967, this area was renamed Memphis Botanic Garden.

Today, the entire 96-acre Memphis Botanic Garden is a certified arboretum. In 2006, the Tennessee Urban Forestry Council awarded the Garden its highest classification as a Level IV Arboretum, thanks to the efforts of a group of dedicated volunteers and hard-working staff. In 2012, the Garden was designation as Tennessee’s first Urban Forestry Center of Excellence.

The Garden has an impressive conifer collection, which was established in 1981 and updated in 2002 to include many dwarf varieties that are now available for the home landscape. Conifers are typically associated with colder climates, and the species traditionally grown in the south have been few in number. However, the list continues to grow as plants are trialed in the Southeast. Memphis Botanic Garden’s Conifer Collection provides a valuable testing ground for a variety of conifers. The collection is currently estimated at 300 individual plants, with more than 100 species represented, and more added continually.

The Garden is located at 750 Cherry Road, Memphis, TN and is open to the public from 9:00-4:30, every day except Thanksgiving and Christmas, with extended hours during daylight savings time. Cost of admission is $8 for the general public, with discounts for seniors, children, groups, and military families.

Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden provides education to the Richmond Virginia community about the plant world, promotes the best in horticulture and landscape design and works toward the goal of being a leader in botanical and applied horticulture research.

Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden offers year-round beauty on a historic property with more than 50 acres of spectacular gardens. More than a dozen themed gardens include a Healing Garden, Sunken Garden, Asian Valley, Rose Garden, a wetland garden, a Victorian garden and a Children's Garden. A classical domed Conservatory is the only one of its kind in the mid-Atlantic with ever changing displays, orchids and tropical plants.

Visitors can encounter an attractive blend of diverse and fascinating dwarf conifers, complemented by ornamental grasses and spring-blooming minor bulbs in the Streb Conifer Garden. Through myriad forms, sizes and hues these conifers demonstrate practical uses for providing structure, color and texture in the garden as well as year-round interest. A gazebo, architecturally inspired by the Bloemendaal House, imparts an open invitation to stop and peruse the views.

In 1996, Ben and Jacquie White provided the funding for this conifer garden and gazebo in honor of Mrs. White's mother, Margaret Johanna Streb. The Whites were inspired by the Gotelli Collection of dwarf conifers at the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington D.C.

For more information, please visit the website.

A gem in the heart of the city of Spartanburg, the Hatcher Garden & Woodland Preserve has just begun its second quarter-century as a free public botanical space dedicated to providing a refuge for both quiet contemplation and active living. Hatcher's mission is to provide a place where the garden's 35,000 visitors each year can come for inspiration, enjoyment and education through the study of nature.

The garden's beginnings were much more humble than the 10 acres of woodland, ponds, streams and carefully maintained plant specimens in today's Hatcher Garden. It's hard to believe that the space with its water features, towering trees, native plants, specimen conifer garden and structures that invite people to linger and enjoy was once eroded ravines and depleted cotton fields

It began in 1969 as a private backyard garden created by Harold and Josephine Hatcher who had come to Spartanburg after retiring to be close to their daughter, Alice, and her husband Don, both college professors. The Hatchers' dream began small, but they came to believe that they could create a public greenspace out of land adjacent to their home just off Reidville Road, one of the busiest streets in the city. Over the years they worked to cultivate and expand their garden, welcoming the public into their ample backyard.

Alice Hatcher Henderson, the daughter who taught at the University of South Carolina Upstate, and still lives in Spartanburg, remembers the joy her parents reaped from the hard work that it took to create their garden on a limited retirement income, and she knows they would be proud of what their garden has become.

They would not be able to believe their eyes, says Henderson, who serves as an honorary trustee on Hatcher's board. They had seen former projects of theirs in Illinois, New York and Indiana go downhill after they moved, so they had no expectation that Spartanburg would be completely opposite and achieve such inspiring improvement after their deaths.

It is a testament to the community that the Hatchers did not have to build their garden alone. From the beginning, they enlisted the help of friends and local garden enthusiasts to help them realize their dream. As the garden continued to grow through the 1970s, members of the Spartanburg Men's Garden Club, the Spartanburg Garden Club Council, Spartanburg Community College and the Unitarian Universalist Church became intrigued with the Hatchers' vision for their garden and began to volunteer their time and resources to support the garden's development.

The Hatchers' work continued into the 1980s, and in 1987, when he was almost 80 years old, Harold Hatcher decided to give the garden more permanent protection by donating the property to the Spartanburg County Foundation. Ownership was transferred, a board established, and 501(c)(3) non-profit status acquired, thus assuring the garden's continuity. At that time, the garden was officially given the name Hatcher Garden & Woodland Preserve with the Hatchers' blessings.

For the past 25 years, Hatcher Garden & Woodland Preserve has operated as a non-profit, free public garden, open every day during daylight hours. The staff and board of Hatcher Garden have as their goal to preserve, protect and sustain the garden for the benefit of the entire community and region.

The woodland garden includes numerous separate garden rooms and a half-mile of paved paths. The Bartram Trail contains a selection of plants that William Bartram, America's first native-born naturalist, first noted on his travels through the Southeast during the 18th century. A hosta garden, butterfly garden, wildflower garden and Water Wise Garden complement the large trees and established camellia and azalea plants that Harold Hatcher planted and loved. The garden is truly a gift from the community to the community a garden that welcomes everyone into the nurturing and healing space.

Hatcher's Conifer Collection

The State Botanical Garden of Georgia, located on a 313 acre preserve in Athens, is a unit of the University of Georgia tasked with the mission of teaching, research, and public outreach. While it is part of an educational institution, it is also a community garden central to the lives of, not just students, but the residents of Athens-Clarke County and the surrounding region.

SBG was the first garden in the American Conifer Society's Southeast Region to be awarded Reference Garden status in 2008. Since then, over 250 conifers have been added to the collection representing 160 species and cultivars. The ACS Reference Garden is housed adjacent to the Callaway Building but the conifer collection extends from tropical species in the Visitor Center, throughout all the themed gardens and to at-risk native populations in the natural areas.

In applying for the grant, the goals - consistent with the mission of the Garden - was to educate the public (including non-traditional Garden visitors) about conifers and encourage their use in southeastern landscapes. To do this effectively, the Garden needed to diversify and enhance its collection, broaden conservation efforts and improve educational signage.

Part of the ACS funding was used to expand the Cedrus collection in the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Section of the International Garden. Cedars are magnificent conifers native to the Middle East with decay resistant wood. Because of its economic value, cedar was extensively harvested resulting today in small remnants of original forests. Cedar of Lebanon was used to build Phoenician ships. Its sawdust was found in the tombs of the pharaohs where it was part of the mummification process. These kind of facts are woven into a narrative that facilitates the Garden's educational outreach to visitors of all ages. After all, what child isn't fascinated with mummies?!

The grant also funded the replacement of sapsucker-damaged Cedrus atlantica with a serpentine form-as topiary is an option-and added the cultivars 'Fastigiata' and 'Silberspitz'. Cedrus brevifolia was planted, along with four cultivars of C. libani. Twelve deodar selections, from 'Limeglow' to 'Electra Blue', 'Raywood's Contorted' to 'Twisted Growth' filled out the list.

Another part of this project included enhancing endangered, relict, and safeguarded conifer collections beginning with the genus Araucaria. When a UGA student from Brazil brought back seed of Araucaria angustifolia from a home visit, the Garden began propagating it. Seven of the progeny of the critically endangered Paraña pine were planted in the International Garden. During an ACS regional meeting two more members of this genus, Araucaria montana and A. bidwillii, were acquired.

The grant has also contributed to ongoing conservation efforts such as safeguarding Torreya taxifolia through the work of the Georgia Plant Conservation Alliance. In Florida torreya was once so abundant, settlers used it for fence posts and shingles, riverboat fuel, even Christmas trees. Today, only twelve individuals remain in the wild on the Georgia side of the Apalachicola River. Georgia has the only full set of all surviving wild clones in cultivation and two safeguarded populations are at SBG.

Also housed at SBG is a protected collection of Eastern Hemlocks. Tsuga canadensishas been under siege by the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA) here as well and, according to the Georgia Forestry Commission, the annual spread of HWA is faster in Georgia than any other state in the southeast. Several species of Asian predator beetles are being released to combat this invasive pest with some promising results. Once HWA is controlled, SBG trees can be used as a seed source for re-establishing this species in the wild.SBG is also leading protection efforts of Tsuga caroliniana,the Carolina Hemlock, that is being attacked by HWA as well. As part of the Georgia Plant Conservation Alliance, Garden staff, with the help of members of the UGA climbing club, are collecting cones from the only seven trees in Georgia. Germinated seedlings were planted back in the wild under the care of volunteer stewards and SBG is establishing a safeguarded collection of Carolina Hemlock at SBG.

Collections expansion, interpretive signs, seed collection- so many important projects have been facilitated by the ACS Southeast Region Reference Garden Grant Program. Thank you all for what you do! And special thanks to John and Becky Quackenbush, who contributed additional funding to allow us to meet our goals. Come for a visit soon!

Jeannette Coplin
Director of Horticulture and Grounds
State Botanical Garden of Georgia