Botanical Gardens & Arboretums in Montgomery, AL
Looking for a place to commune with plants in Montgomery?
Pickin’s are a little slim near town, but there are a couple of outlying arboretums that beef up The Gump’s offerings.
Here are the places plant life thrives closest to town:
Montgomery Botanical Gardens
These are Montgomery’s nearest botanical gardens:
Montgomery Botanical Gardens
1010 Forest AveMontgomery, AL 36106
Hours
Daily: 7:30 am-Dusk
Admission: Free
Parking: Free
Gardens
- Daylily Garden
- Pollinator Gardens
- Annual Garden
Other Attractions & Amenities
- Classes
- Lectures/Walks
Montgomery Arboretums
These are The Gump’s closest arboretums:
William Bartram Arboretum
(Fort Toulouse-Jackson Park)2521 W Fort Toulouse Rd
Wetumpka, AL 36093
(334) 567-3002
Hours
Daily: 8 am-5 pm
Admission: $2 (Adult); $1 (Children 6-18)
Parking: Free
Attractions & Amenities
- Interpretive Trail
- Museum
- Bookstore
- Camping
- Boat Ramp
Donald E. Davis Arboretum
181 Garden DrAuburn, AL 36849
(334) 844-5770
Hours
Daily: Sunrise-Sunset
Admission: Free
Parking: Free (parking pass required on weekdays)
Species
- Oaks
- Magnolias
- Willows
- Sweetgum
- Hickory
- Pine
Attractions & Amenities
- Waterfall
- Walking Trails
- Festivals
- Plant Sales
Troy Arboretum
101 Pell AveTroy, AL 36081
(334) 670-3938
Hours
Daily: Sunrise-Sunset
Admission: Free
Parking: Free (parking pass required on weekdays)
Species & Gardens
- Oaks
- Sourwood
- Pine
- Pollinator Garden
Attractions & Amenities
- Pond
- Stream
- Swamp
- 7.5 miles of trails
Botanical Gardens & Arboretums FAQ
Getting jonesed up for your trip to a local botanical garden or arboretum?
Here are some cool questions and answers about botanic gardens to help get you in the mood.
Does botanic and botanical mean the same thing?
Yup. You will see some gardens use “botanic” and some gardens use “botanical,” but they have the exact same meaning –
“involving or relating to plants”
The term is derived from “botany,” which is biology’s branch for plant life.
Is there a difference between a botanical garden and an arboretum?
Yes.
There is some crossover between the two, and their missions of preserving, cataloguing and studying plant life is largely the same, but there is a difference between a botanical garden and an arboretum.
That difference is in the plants that they grow and study.
A botanical garden has specialized areas (greenhouses, conservatories, gardens) in which they typically grow non-native plants or collections of plants.
An arboretum is focused on native trees and wood plants (though, they may grow other trees and plants), which are generally grown outdoors in their natural environments.
While there are some arboretums that stand alone, many are found within the grounds of botanical gardens.
What is the largest botanical garden in the world?
Kew Gardens, officially named Royal Botanic Gardens, just outside of London, England is considered the world’s biggest botanical garden.
At 320 acres, it’s not the largest in size, but at 30,000 species, it has the most diverse collection of living plants in the world.
What is the largest botanical garden in the U.S.?
Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania (just outside of Wilmington, Delaware) is the largest botanical garden in the United States by size.
It sits on nearly 1,100 acres, though not all of that is devoted to the gardens themselves.
But if we’re talking species, the largest U.S. botanical garden is New York Botanical Garden.
At 250 acres, it’s only a fourth the size of Longwood Gardens, but houses 12,000 different species of plants.
Could I just grow a bunch of plants and call it a botanical garden?
You could, but you wouldn’t be meeting the official definition or criteria for a botanical garden.
A botanic garden, as defined by the International Association of Botanic Gardens, must be open to the public and its plants must be labeled.
But that is the most general definition.
Botanic Gardens Conservation International, an organization which counts most of the world’s most important botanic gardens amongst its membership, have expanded the definition to include additional criteria.
Some of these criteria are:
- Being largely permanent
- Keeping proper documentation of all plant species
- Maintaining proper labeling of plant species
- Having a scientific basis for collections
- Doing on-site study/research
Basically, if you don’t have a scientific explanation for why you have certain plants and why you have them in certain groupings and you aren’t actively studying them, you don’t really have a botanical garden.
After all, the study of plants – botany – is right there in the name.
