Garden Overview Tour
A Brief Glance at Missouri Botanical Garden
Ridgway Center
The Ridgway Center is the main visitors’ center and entrance to the Garden. This magnificent gateway is located at 4344 Shaw Boulevard, a short distance from the Kingshighway and Vandeventer interchanges on Interstate 44. The Ridgway Center contains the Garden Gate Shop, Sassafras cafe, educational facilities, art exhibits, and the Spink Gallery, which features a beautiful display of ceramics.Linnean House
The Linnean House, the oldest continuously operating greenhouse conservatory in the United States, contains the Garden’s camellia collection. Camellias, members of the tea family, bloom as early as October and November. The camellias reach their height of glorious bloom in mid to late February, and continue blooming through March until mid-April.
The Linnean House, built by Henry Shaw in 1882, was named for Carl Linnaeus, the father of plant classification.
The Victorian Area
A portion of the original 19th century Garden surrounds the Tower Grove House, Henry Shaw’s 1849 country home. Structures and landscaping have been added to the area to recreate features built by Shaw in the Garden and Tower Grove Park, including the Kresko Family Victorian Garden, the Kaeser Maze, and the Piper Observatory . The Mausoleum Garden, surrounded by a wrought-iron fence, contains the mausoleum which is Henry Shaw’s final resting place.
Cherbonnier English Woodland Garden
The Cherbonnier English Woodland Garden is a quiet, informal garden that attracts people and wildlife alike. This area includes three vegetation layers, typical of a mature woodland - an upper tree canopy, a middle shrub layer, and a lower layer of herbaceous perennial plants and ground covers. In the spring, hundreds of woodland flowers including dogwoods, trillium, Virginia bluebells, winter aconite, and azaleas put on a massive display. Peak season of interest is from early spring through summer and into autumn.
Japanese Garden
The Japanese Garden is named Seiwa-en, which means the garden of pure, clear harmony and peace. Designed with great care by the late Professor Koichi Kawana to ensure authenticity, this 14-acre garden is the largest Japanese strolling garden in the Western hemisphere. A four-acre lake is complemented with waterfalls, streams, water-filled basins, and stone lanterns. Dry gravel gardens are raked into beautiful, rippling patterns. Four islands rise from the lake to form symbolic images. Several Japanese bridges link shorelines; families delight in feeding the giant “koi” (Japanese carp). Visitors are enthralled by cherry blossoms, azaleas, chrysanthemums, peonies, lotus, and other oriental plantings.
Blanke Boxwood Garden
Visitors enter the Blanke Boxwood Garden through a handsome walled brick courtyard, catching glimpses of the center of the garden through circular window openings. The entry walk, flanked by perennial borders and boxwoods, leads visitors to a formal, oval boxwood parterre accented with colorful flowers and ground cover. The low hedges of boxwood are shaped to form the initials of Henry Shaw, the Garden’s founder.
Kemper Center and Home Demonstration Gardens
The William T. Kemper Center for Home Gardening features twenty-three distinct residential-scale gardens contained in a spectacularly engineered eight-acre design. Adults and children visit and learn about vegetable gardening, flower growing, planting ornamental shrubs, landscaping, indoor plants, and more than a dozen other horticultural displays. The Kemper Center features an 8,000 square foot pavilion which contains displays, a reference library, the Plant Doctor clinic, a working beehive, a demonstration kitchen, and much more for the gardening enthusiast. Visit the Kemper Center throughout the year for timely tips and advice on gardening and related subjects.
Grigg Nanjing Friendship Chinese Garden
The Grigg Nanjing Friendship Garden features an authentic Chinese pavilion, bridge, and moon gate, accented by traditional stones, carvings, water features, and plantings. It is modeled on the “scholar’s gardens” of the southern provinces of China, near Nanjing, which are smaller and less ornate than the Imperial gardens of the north. This garden, designed by Chinese-born architect Yong Pan, is considered the most authentic of its size in the United States, and a showplace of extraordinary craftsmanship. The Grigg Nanjing Friendship Garden honors the sister city relationship between St. Louis, Missouri and Nanjing, China.
Climatron®
The stunning Climatron® conservatory has become a symbol of the Missouri Botanical Garden. The geodesic dome was inspired by the design of R. Buckminster Fuller. Covering over a half-acre, the Climatron houses some 1,200 species of plants in a natural, tropical setting.
Visitors enjoy bananas, cacao, and coffee trees, plus a collection of orchids and epiphytes. The Climatron is also home to a variety of animals, including tropical birds. Several pools and waterfalls give a sense of lushness, as if visitors were within a true tropical rainforest. The Climatron is ever-changing and is an impressive display throughout the year.
Children's Garden
The new Doris I. Schnuck Children’s Garden: A Missouri Adventure introduces youngsters at their most impressionable age to the significance of plants and nature in fun and innovative ways. Occupying nearly two acres west of the Climatron conservatory, A Missouri Adventure brings botany and 19th-century history to life through a variety of interactive themes with appeal for both kids and adults. Venture into a limestone cave, glide down Spelunker’s Slide, explore the wetlands, board a steamboat, climb to new heights in the tree house, or visit a Midwestern prairie village. The Children's Garden is open from April through October.
Shoenberg Temperate House
The Shoenberg Temperate House complements the Climatron, flanking the domed structure to the north. This spacious conservatory displays plants unique to the temperate regions of the world: Africa, Australia, Japan, Korea, China, South America, the Mediterranean Sea basin, coastal California, and the southeastern United States. The Temperate House has seven distinct interior gardens. Plants of the Bible can be found in one display, as can figs, grapes, pomegranates, laurel, and numerous herbs and spice plants. A special carnivorous plant area displays insect-eating flora. In addition, a historic stone portico overlooks a beautifully tiled Moorish walled garden that reflects major elements in the history of formal garden design. Peak season of interest is late winter/early spring.
Monsanto Center
The Monsanto Center, which opened in 1997, is home to the Garden’s botanical research staff, the herbarium, and the library. An engineering masterpiece and model of “green architecture,” the Monsanto Center sets a new standard for construction and operations that are cost effective and have the least possible impact on natural resources. In addition to being designed with environmentally friendly architecture and technology, the building is earthquake-proof, resting on base isolators placed on pillars that reach to bedrock. It is occasionally open for tours. Call 1 (800) 332-1286.
This is only a brief overview of some of the Garden's features. Don't miss the roses, bulbs, hostas, iris, daylilies, and azaleas found in other areas of the Garden.
Click here for a more detailed tour highlighting each area in Missouri Botanical Garden.