Easter at Garvan Woodland Gardens

Yesterday Gina and I along with my daughter and her family visited Garvan Woodland Gardens in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The Gardens were the dream of Verna Cook Garvan. The site for Garvan Woodland Gardens was purchased in the 1920's. In 1956 Mrs. Garvan began to develop it as a garden and possible future residence. She was intimately familiar with the land and laid out each path, marking every tree to be removed. She also personally chose each new plant and selected its location.

When she died in 1993, Mrs. Garvan gave the property to the University of Arkansas Foundation. The Gardens are now an independent department of the University's Fay Jones School of Architecture and continue to flourish and grow.

Every spring Garvan Woodland Gardens has a tulip extravaganza. Over 150,000 tulips line the walkways of Arkansas' premier botanical garden.  Every year that we can we visit the gardens during the tulip extravaganza. Yesterday was a perfect day for a visit.  The weather was perfect as we walked the tulip lined trails.

The peak tulip viewing times at the gardens are March 15 through April 1. Garvan Woodland Gardens are beautiful any time of the year, but I think that the tulip season is quite possibly the best.

Garvan Woodland Gardens is the largest remaining undeveloped tract of land on Lake Hamilton, the Mid-South's most popular recreational Lake. There are over three miles of recreational trails.  This time of year many of the trails are lined with thousands of tulips.

We had a very enjoyable afternoon. The temperatures were warm and the flowers were so beautiful. This time of year the tulips are quite impressive, but there are other flowers in bloom.

My granddaughter Elisabeth loved the flowers and kept saying these flowers are pretty, take my picture here. As a Papa, of course I did.

Garvan Woodland Gardens is an amazing place.  If you ever visit Hot Springs, Arkansas I highly recommend a visit to Garvan Woodland Gardens.