Springfield-Greene Botanical Center to open this month

The Springfield-Greene County Botanical Center at Nathanael Greene/Close memorial Park will open this month. The center is a 12,700-sq.-ft. building in the 55-acre Close Memorial Park, which adjoins the 59-acre Nathaniel Greene Park in Springfield, Mo. The center contains classroom, meeting, rental and exhibit space, an elevated plaza entrance and a roof garden. It will contain the office of the Univ. of Mo. Extension’s Greene County, which will offer a plant diagnostics lab and a help hotline for lawn and garden questions in conjunction with the center opening.
The center’s 20-year master plan shows the building surrounded by botanical gardens and an arboretum containing all of Missouri’s native trees. Existing gardens include the Master Gardener Demonstration Gardens, the White Garden, the Butterfly Garden, the English Garden, the Federated Garden Clubs Garden and individual gardens devoted to columbines, daylilies, hostas, ornamental grasses, native shrubs and wildflowers, peonies, roses, viburnums, conifers, flowering shrubs, dogwoods and redbuds.
Future gardens may include a Biblical Garden, Bulb and Tuber Garden, Conservatory, Freedom Garden, Heritage Garden, Perennial Garden, Secret Garden, Sensory Garden, Terrace Garden, Victorian Garden, Pendula Garden, Wetland Garden, Winter Garden and individual gardens devoted to azaleas, conifers, ferns, flowering trees, Japanese maples and magnolias.

Pictured: The 12,700-sq.-ft. Springfield-Greene County Botanical Center in Springfield, Mo., opens in October and will contain the Univ. of Mo. Extension’s Green County office that will feature a Plant Doctor Diagnostics lab.