Mason Farm Road off 15/501

For over thirty-five years , the mission of the North Carolina Botanical Garden (NCBG) has been “to inspire understanding, appreciation, and conservation of plants in gardens and natural areas and to advance a sustainable relationship between people and nature."  To this end, NCBG has introduced and sustains a tradition of conservation through propagation from seed and cuttings rather than wild collecting, as well as pioneering the practice of plant rescue.  As a founding Participating Institution of the Center for Plant Conservation, NCBG collects and holds germplasm of endangered native species from the southeastern United States and serves as an important seed bank for the more common plants native to our region.  NCBG was also the first botanical garden in the country –and one of the first in the world – to adopt an exotic plant holdings policy, seeking to prevent the spread of invasive exotic species into natural areas.  Through its displays and its educational and conservation programs, NCBG is a major force in preserving and enhancing the heritage of our southern natural habitat. 

In autumn 2007, ground was broken for NCBG’s new “green” Visitor Education Center.  It will set a new standard for environmentally friendly public buildings in our state and region, featuring solar panels and clerestory windows that adapt incoming natural light according to seasonal needs, geothermal walls in which water circulating in sealed pipes maintains even temperatures, and water-conserving rainwater cisterns and stormwater ponds, on a building site chosen to protect existing vegetation and minimize earth-moving.  Three sections connected by breezeways will house both administrative and education spaces: a central Exhibit and Information Hall, flanked by a large multipurpose auditorium and special-event spaces, and by a wing housing classrooms, offices, and teaching gardens.  In the words of its architect, Frank Harmon, the new Visitor Education Center “will demonstrate to the world that a green building can be warm, welcoming, and beautiful, as well as environmentally responsible and supportive of the physical and spiritual needs of all who work, volunteer, or learn here.  Set in a world-class conservation garden, the building will be a gateway to the wonder of the natural world and to a future in which human health and environmental health are one."

On tour days, the NCBG will hold a plant sale and complimentary refreshments will be served.

 

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