The Atlanta Botanical Garden, Atlanta's living museum, is an oasis of beauty and tranquility in the heart of Midtown. Celebrating its 25th birthday in 2001, the youthful Garden features 15 acres of display gardens, a state-of-the-art Conservatory, the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Children's Garden and a 15-acre old-growth hardwood forest with walking trails. 'Homeowner-sized' demonstration gardens include Perennial, Fragrance and Iris gardens, along with a walled Herb garden and gardens for Shade, Winter bloom, bulbs, hardy tropicals and the Wildflower Meadow. The Rose garden, in bloom from May until December, contains several hundred old and shrub roses along with some of the newer All-America Rose Selections. The Carnivorous Plant Bog is home to native insect-eating plants such as sundews, pitcher plants and Venus fly-traps, while several ponds showcase aquatic and marginal plants. The Dwarf and Rare Conifers garden exhibits the enormous variety among cone-bearing plants. The walled Japanese garden includes a pond with stone bridge and a tea house built by a Japanese craftsman entirely without nails. The Ornamental Grasses section and the Vine Arbor feature many different examples of these distinctive plant types. Specialized ecotypes such as the Southern Rock Garden, Granite Outcrop and Coastal Plain gardens feature specialized plant collections hardy in the Atlanta climate. The newest display is the Children's garden that opened in the fall of 1999 in cooperation with Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. The 2-acre, $3 million interactive garden has a health and wellness theme, and teaches children and families how plants contribute to good health in a fun, hands-on, natural setting. The Children's garden is divided into three sections: the Laugh, Live and Learn area with a caterpillar maze and butterfly garden, an 'air factory' and a Peter Rabbit storytelling circle; the Plants Through Time area with a dinosaur garden, a Creek Indian lodge and native crops, a colonial settler's garden and a plants of today section; and the Environment and Conservation area with a demonstration beehive and Beehive Meadow, Soggy Bog, Bullfrog Pond, Woodland Treehouse and Rocky Pointe. Free programs in the open-air Amphitheater stress that healthy children need a healthy environment. Walking trails in Storza Woods offer a cool, peaceful retreat on a hot Atlanta day only three miles from downtown! The Upper Woodland, site of the camellia collection, wildflowers, water features, a backyard wildlife habitat and a fern glade, provides a home for birds, squirrels, raccoons and other wildlife. Adjacent, the Wildflower Meadow features native wildflowers for sunny sites. The Dorothy Chapman Fuqua Conservatory, completed in 1989, houses over 7,000 rare and endangered tropical and desert plants from around the world. Rare island palms, orchids, epiphytes, and Old World succulents such as Lithops, the 'living stones', are some of the collections on display. The mist-filled Tropical Rotunda includes colorful birds flying free. Displays in the Lobby are changed seasonally, and three terrariums there hold brilliant poison-dart frogs. Visitors to the Fuqua Conservatory can take a 30-minute audio tour in English, Spanish, French, German or Japanese. The tapes rent for $2, along with a portable cassette player through the Museum Shop. The Garden's Sheffield Botanical Library contains over 2,000 volumes and 80 periodicals. The Museum Shop offers live plants and an assortment of imaginative plant-oriented gifts and books. From April through October, lunch is served on Lanier Terrace overlooking the rose garden.
The
ever-expanding hub of the southeastern United States, Atlanta has grown from
an historic southern city into a huge modern metropolis comprised of
prestigious boroughs, corporate and theater districts, modern attractions
and more. Few American cities can match the unique blend of past and present
of Atlanta ....more
Walt Disney Dolphin Resort Hotel compares well with the 188 hotels in
the city. In Lake Buena Vista, Onsite Disney Walt Disney Dolphin Resort can
be found at 1500 Epcot Resorts Blvd. Walt Disney Dolphin Resort Orlando
contains Restaurant, Airport Shuttle - For Fee, and Fitness Facility. Room
options include: Spacious room. .... more
