Garvan Woodland Gardens
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The Garvan Woodland Gardens 210 acres (850,000 m²) are a botanical garden located at 498 Arkridge Road by the Hot Springs National Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas, USA. They are owned by the University of Arkansas and open almost every day during daylight hours, for a fee.
The gardens are situated on a wooded peninsula with 4.5 miles (7 km) of shoreline on Lake Hamilton, across which visitors arrive aboard the Belle of Hot Springs, a restored riverboat. The gardens feature rocky inclines reminiscent of the surrounding Ouachita Mountains, floral landscapes, streams, and waterfalls in a natural woodland setting, plus a Japanese Garden with Japanese maples and tree peonies, a conifer border, and various flower and rock gardens. Its collections display hundreds of rare shrubs and trees, including camellias, magnolias, roses, and over 160 different types of azaleas.
The Gardens were started by Verna Cook Garvan, daughter of Arthur B. and Louise Cook of Malvern, Arkansas. Mr. Cook operated Wisconsin-Arkansas Lumber Co. and the Malvern Brick and Tile Company until his death in 1934. Shortly afterward, Mrs. Garvan assumed control as one of the first female CEO's of a major southern manufacturing business and served in that capacity until her retirement in the 1970s. The garden site was purchased in the 1920s after a clear-cut in about 1915. In 1956, Mrs. Garvan began to develop it as a garden and over the next forty years planted thousands of specimens. Upon her death, Mrs. Garvan left the property to the Department of Landscape Architecture through the University of Arkansas Foundation.
