Tucked against the shoulder of Spring Hill, just above the lake in Municipal Park, sits a 100-acre garden that many nearby residents have never fully explored. Mobile Botanical Gardens is located just five minutes from both the University of South Alabama and Interstate 65, yet it’s often confused with a separate, larger home-and-garden property in south Mobile County along Fowl River.
Mobile’s position in one of the most biologically diverse parts of North America has drawn plant collectors and researchers to the area for generations. Mobile Botanical Gardens has built on that natural advantage over the years, assembling plant collections that function as a living museum, including some specimens found nowhere else on Earth.
Executive Director Robin Krchak recently announced that Seth Allen, a former curator at the historic Magnolia Plantation & Garden in Charleston, South Carolina, is joining the Mobile Botanical Gardens staff as horticultural curator.
The gardens themselves are organized into a series of distinct collections. The Sawada Winter Garden is one of only seven gardens in the United States recognized as a Garden of Excellence by the International Camellia Society, drawing visitors for its blooms in the middle of winter. The McConnell Rhododendron Garden holds more than a thousand evergreen azaleas, making it the most comprehensive azalea collection along the Gulf Coast, along with the largest U.S. collection of Satsuki azaleas.
The newer Aromi Hybrid Azalea Garden showcases work by Dr. Eugene Aromi, whose azalea breeding is nationally recognized and also represented in the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. The John Allen Smith Japanese Maple Garden offers striking tree architecture and vivid color in late autumn, while the Sybil Burnett Herb Garden lets visitors see fresh herbs that are more commonly encountered dried in jars. A dedicated Pollinator Garden draws butterflies and hummingbirds throughout the growing season.
The grounds are accessible by paved pathways in many areas, making them navigable for guests using strollers or wheelchairs. The gardens also host annual spring and fall plant sales and Gallery of Gardens tours, along with a MarketPlace and online catalog where visitors can buy plants suited to the region’s climate.
A gift shop called The Artful Garden features U.S.-made items available locally only through Mobile Botanical Gardens, including kitchen tools, jewelry, fine art and wind chimes.
The gardens also host a regular slate of classes and lectures. Botanical artist Derek Norman leads botanical art classes, while Alabama’s Poet Laureate Emerita Sue Walker and writer Gail Gehlken lead Writers in Nature sessions. A new lecture series, named for Marion Deane Drummond, kicks off Sept. 22 with two speakers, food and a silent auction of plants. On Oct. 9, author Andrea Wulf is scheduled to discuss her New York Times best-seller “The Invention of Nature,” a biography of naturalist Alexander Von Humboldt.
Mobile Botanical Gardens also offers a free Lunch & Learn session on sustainable hydroponic farming with Mobile Master Gardeners on Monday, Sept. 17, from noon to 1 p.m. at the Jon Archer Ag Center, 1070 N. Schillinger Road in Mobile, featuring speaker Dale Speetjans.
For details on classes, memberships, plant sales and upcoming lectures, visit MobileBotanicalGardens.org or call 251-342-0555. Gardening questions can also be directed to the Master Gardener Helpline at 877-252-4769 or emailed to coastalalabamagardening@gmail.com.