Rio Grande Botanic Garden

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Rio Grande Botanic Garden, conservatory, and pond.

The Rio Grande Botanic Garden (8 ha / 20 acres) is a botanical garden and 900 m² (10,000 square feet) conservatory located beside the Rio Grande and what is said to be the largest cottonwood gallery forest in the world, in the Albuquerque Biological Park, 2601 Central Avenue NW, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. It is open every day of the week during business hours except for Thanksgiving, Christmas and, New Year's Days; an admission fee is charged.

[edit] Exhibits

The Garden's conservatory contains native and exotic plants from desert and Mediterranean climates. The outdoor gardens place an emphasis on desert plants. Other exhibits include a seasonal butterfly conservatory, an early 20th-century Farm with a farm house and living farm animals, a model "Garden" railroad, and a children's fantasy garden. In 2007, a Japanese garden was added as well, and the Garden has plans to expand the Japanese section in the near future. Phase 1 of the insectarium will be opening soon. This exhibit will showcase arthropods from New Mexico and around the world.

Children's Fantasy Garden A fourteen-foot high dragon guards the entrance of the Fantasy Garden that gives children a mites' eye perspective on the garden. Giant rakes, hoes and watering cans are tools used to tend huge potatoes, onions and carrots only Superman could lift. Huge bees pollinate enormous flowers, and six-foot earthworms burrow through soil. A walk-through pumpkin 42 feet in diameter and two stories high is the centerpiece of this fun garden.

Desert Conservatory Temperature and light control in the conservatories allow plants to thrive and bloom year-round. The Desert Conservatory's hot, dry climate supports a collection of plant life from deserts of the American Southwest. Saguaro cactus and palo verde trees from the Sonoran Desert, creosote and yucca from the Chihuahuan Desert, and elephant trees from Baja are just some of the incredible xeric-adapted plants on display.

Mediterranean Conservatories The Mediterranean conservatory shows off a variety of plants native to coastal areas with hot dry summers and mild rainy winters, such as the Mediterranean, the California coast, southwestern Australia, South Africa and coastal Chile. Rockroses, bottlebrush trees, olive trees, myrtles, snapdragons, oleanders and numerous mints and sages have a home here in the simulated coastal environment. This conservatory is also the locale for several flower shows, including Winter Fire Colors, Bulbs in Bloom and the Orchid Show.

Spanish and Walled Gardens These gardens are just to your right as you enter the garden. The first, a Spanish-Moorish Garden, may look like a typical Santa Fe garden to many New Mexicans. The Moorish style originated in the deserts of North Africa, was brought to Spain by the Moors and to New Mexico by the Spanish. Designed to create a cool retreat in the desert with shade provided by walls and trees, a sparing but aesthetic use of water, colorful tile work and aromatic plants, it is a style marvelously suited to our dry climate. Plants typical of Spain include rosemary, Spanish lavender as well as fig and pomegranate trees. The Spanish-Moorish Garden opens up into a small, round garden with a raised bed of cultivated roses called the Jardin Redondo. The centerpiece is a fountain with water flowing through rings of bright blooms. The Jardin Redondo leads into the Ceremonial Rose Garden. Decorative metal-work pillars entwined with clematis and arches covered with purple and white wisteria make a large shaded arbor. A raised stage covered with an arbor of rambler and climber roses make a perfect venue for the many weddings which take place here.

Sasebo Japanese Garden Sasebo Japanese Garden opened to the public on Friday, September 28, 2007. Sasebo Garden is a classic Japanese Garden in design and construction. This four-acre ‘garden within a garden’ was designed by landscape architect Toru Tanaka and features authentic Japanese architecture and exquisite, traditional design elements such as the tile-capped garden wall and tile-roofed entry gate, an elevated bell tower, stone lanterns and pagoda sculptures, a ceremonial hand-wash basin, the murmuring waterfall, an elegant Koi pond, the arched Moon Bridge and a Moon viewing deck. The plant palette includes both traditional Japanese and American Southwest plantings. Sasebo Garden is sure to please and inspire Botanic Garden visitors with its lovely architecture and exacting detail.

Heritage Farm Just a few decades ago, almost everyone in America had a connection to a farm. Revive that connection at the award-winning Heritage Farm, a re-creation of a 1930's era Rio Grande farm in every detail. You can see a large kitchen garden, crops in the field, an orchard, vineyard and berry bushes. Canning, quilting and other demonstrations take place in the farmhouse, and farm animals such as cows, goats, pigs and horses live at the barn. A cider press turns much of the fall apple harvest into vinegar and cider. During the summer, take a buckboard ride, courtesy of Dick and Dan, the Percheron draft horse team. In addition to winning the 2007 American Public Gardens Association award for excellence in programming, the Heritage Farm was honored to be invited to place an exhibit at the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C. from May through October 9, 2007. Heritage Farm Exhibit

Curandera Garden Curanderos, Spanish folk doctors, have a long history in New Mexico where they've been practicing for the last 300-plus years. The Curandera garden commemorates this tradition with a beautiful bas relief sculpture by Diego "Sonny" Rivera and plantings of traditional herbs that are used by these herbalists.

Camino de Colores Each of the four areas of this garden features one of the four seasons as its theme, with plants chosen to represent each season's colors year-round. A water feature in the winter garden will look cool and icy in summer and be covered with icicles in the winter. Magnificent rose planters complement benches and a place to rest.