Birmingham Botanical Gardens and Birmingham Parks | Birmingham, Alabama

Founded in 1960 and opened in 1962, the Birmingham Botanical Gardens (BBG) is still in its youth compared to many properties visited during annual meetings. That relative age gap, however, belies the important place BBG has attained among Alabama designed landscapes and plant collections. Understanding BBG best, however, benefits from a look at the larger landscape history of a city that epitomizes the notion of the New South and its attendant economic development.

Former board member Lee Dunn told the story well in her discussion of the 2019 Birmingham annual meeting in the summer 2019 issue of Magnolia.* Here Dunn quotes from author Carl Carmer who humorously dubbed Birmingham the “nouveau riche of Alabama cities” in his book Stars Fell on Alabama. Less than a decade after the Civil War, the new city began a rapid economic ascent based on access to iron, limestone, and coal deposits, this all being bolstered by its growth as a rail center. Fittingly taking its name from England’s Midlands manufacturing mecca, Birmingham had become a major center of industry by the early twentieth century. 

To assist with the planning needs of their expanding city, civic leaders engaged Warren Manning who in 1919 delivered his City Plan for Birmingham. The Boston-based landscape architect recommended not only a city layout based on distinct neighborhoods, but he also stressed the crucial importance of expanding Birmingham’s parks to maximize its residents’ quality of life. Grasping the importance of Manning’s thoughts, the city turned to the Olmsted Brothers in 1924 to help transform his theories into reality. Supplementing Birmingham’s existing public spaces, Olmsted began the development of parks such as Avondale, George Ward, and Ensley.

Along with the Birmingham Zoo, BBG was carved out of Lane Park. (This was designated Red Mountain Park on the Olmsted firm’s master plan.) It is thus near one of Manning’s most famous “neighborhoods,” the city of Mountain Brook, designed by Manning in the late 1920s and developed by Robert Jemison, Jr. German-born botanist and landscape architect Henry Teuscher,** however, gets credit for the BBG’s initial layout. Known for his earlier work in establishing the Montreal Botanical Garden, Teuscher also designed BBG’s landmark conservatory, built by Lord & Burnham.

Doubtlessly many Alabamians can quickly name their favorite spot or spots within this sixty-seven-acre grouping of twenty-five distinct garden zones. The earliest to be established included the Japanese, rose, and wildflower gardens, each continuing to rank high in visitor popularity. The latter, now the seven-acre “Kaul Wildflower Garden” in honor of a major donor, has the added distinction of being laid out in the 1960s by Switzerland native and famed rock garden designer, Zenon Schreiber.*** It is indeed hard to single out a garden concept or a plant that is not addressed somewhere within this comparatively small area. Thus, around one corner or another a visitor’s interest can be satisfied, be it in a bog garden or a fern glade, or in the form of camellias, ferns, herbs,  hostas, irises, lilies, rhododendrons, or vegetables…to name but some of the specially focused spaces. As well, should BBG visitors want to expand their knowledge further, a large library covering an extensive selection of topics is open each weekday, this being supplemented by an archival and rare book collection.

Typical for a limited-space Gardens page post, much more could be said about BBG, other Birmingham’s parks, and the general cultural landscape. For example, in her 2019 Magnolia article Lee Dunn singles out Kelly Ingram Park which was “the staging ground for demonstrations during the American Civil Rights Movement and anchors the Birmingham Civil Rights District.” Thus, Birmingham may fittingly be the subject of a second Gardens post 

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For further details, see: https://bbgardens.org/

See also: https://www.tclf.org/birmingham-city-parks-plan

*https://southerngardenhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/Magnolia-NL-Summer-19-Final-1.pdf#page=6

** For more on Teuscher, see: https://espacepourlavie.ca/en/henry-teuscher

**For more on Schreiber, see: https://nargs.org/sites/default/files/free-rgq-downloads/VOL_50_NO_2.pdf