We have visited the annual Garden Festival in Orlando at Walt Disney World's theme park, Epcot, where we adore the beautiful topiaries on display. Each year we enjoying learning new gardening techniques and viewing the exhibits during our visit. For those who love gardening a visit to the Huntsville Botanical Garden is a great escape from the world. From Mid March through July the Huntsville Botanical Garden showcases these prehistoric creations, in addition real fossilized plants and bones, a 30 foot tall Allosaurus, a 20 foot Astrodon, a 4 foot long Arthropleura (a giant centipede), a 30 foot long Parasaurolophus, and much more. The plantings based on pre-historic plant species will surround the giant creatures, making them look at home in North Alabama.
The Huntsville Botanical Garden will also host a variety of children's activities, adult and children's education programs, along with guided tours, and various social events during the Dinosaur UpRoar celebration. With regular garden admission, guests can explore over 20 life-sized dinosaur models designed and created by paleontologist and artist Guy Darrough and his associates at Lost World Studios in Arnold, Missouri.
These life-sized models have appeared at gardens throughout the country, including Powell Gardens in Kansas City, Missouri, Naples Botanical Gardens in Naples, Florida, McKee Botanical Garden in Vero Beach, Florida, and Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The Huntsville Botanical Garden also has many children's activities, and a beautiful new Nature Center and 2-acre Children’s Garden. Included in the new facility is the nation’s largest seasonal butterfly house and a ‘Classroom Under the Sky’ amphitheatre with seating for up to 300. Specific features of the new complex include the Nature Center with its lush plantings, waterfalls, ponds and streams is home to more than 2000 Native American butterflies, frogs, tree frogs, turtles, hummingbirds and quail. The natural stone and steel beam structure soars over 30' and has a 9000 sq. ft. footprint. Interpretive displays explain the lifecycle of frogs and butterflies.
The Children's Garden is a two-acre area with 8 separate gardens that feature a Space Garden: with a real Space Station node, donated by Marshall Space Flight Center, aquaponic display and Water Rocket Clock, with a real missile, of which there are plenty of them in Huntsville! On the top of each hour, large jets of water spray out marking the time. then there's the adorable Dinosaur Garden where children walk down a dry creek bed with dinosaur footprints and dig in a dino graveyard where 'bones' and real fossils are buried in the sand. A life-sized reproduction of a brachiosaurus ribcage forms a unique bridge.
In the Rainbow Garden we learn what it takes to light up the sky in beautiful colors. Gallons of bubble juice and misting poles fill the air with moving rainbows. Stroll through the 1/2 Acre Wood, featuring a worm world, growing shed for hands-on planting, Burro Bridge, Bee's Eye View - a lens where children can look through and see the world the way a bee does. This area also has a full weather station and a wonderful 'willow village'.
We love the Bamboo Garden at the Huntsville Botanical Garden that reminds us of the panda topiaries Walt Disney World's theme park, Epcot. Here, in the Huntsville Botanical Garden kids will enjoy the bamboo rope bridge and water pipes fashioned from the tubular wood. Bamboo instruments including a xylophone, drum and chimes are there for the playing. Or, visit the Maze Garden and get lost in the old-fashioned maze, or make one of your own from giant sunflowers with moveable leaves. There is also a labyrinth for fun on a smaller scale. Friends and families can call directions from the fabulous tree-house overlook.
Another wonderful creation at the Huntsville Botanical Garden is the Storybook Garden with toadstool seating, a pergola, a hidden garden gate and a wishing well, this garden is filled with visual references to well-known fairytales. And, there's a International Garden, featuring annual exhibits, plantings, a globe and flags.
The Huntsville Botanical Garden holds many annual events, including the BOO-tanica in late October and Hoot in the Woods. For more information visit our website at www.hsvbg.org or call (256) 830-4447.
