Birmingham’s Botanical Gardens

A city of any significant size is able to boast about a good many things – upscale restaurants, zoos, perhaps a planetarium, art galleries, museums and a Botanical Garden.

Birmingham Alabama is no exception. Theirs is a 67-acre garden at the southern foot of Red Mountain. Today the gardens are home to over 12,000 different types of plants and more than 30 original outdoor sculptures. Woven through the gardens are several miles of walking paths. In addition to the gardens, there is also a gardening center, a library (the largest public horticulture library in the country), a Children’s Plant Adventure Zone and restaurant. Admission to the gardens is free.

In 1960 a man named James W. Morgan, then mayor of Birmingham, led the effort to establish the gardens on a large parcel of unused city property just east of the Zoo. The garden officially opened to the public in 1963; and a year later the Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens was established.

On the day that we visited, it was one of those sweltering Southern July afternoons. While we were only able to see a fraction of what this garden had to offer, it was well worth the stop.

Two of the must-see stops for us was to walk through one of the many rose gardens, and to spend as much time as physically possible in the cactus greenhouse. (When it’s sultry outside, a greenhouse is not the best place to be. It was like someone had sucked out all the air).

Kiddo and I took turns with the camera, trying to get the better shot of the butterflies and the bees.

On our way back to the car, we did stop in at the gardening center where we met a man who tried to convince us not to move to Tennessee, but rather to Birmingham instead. Not only did the city have much to offer, but it’s in Alabama – which, in his option, was just an all-around better place to be. Everywhere we went throughout much of the south, we met the friendliest of people. I guess that’s just the southern way.

Next stop, the Gulf of the Americas.