Evans Children's Adventure Garden
(Scheduled Completion Date TBA)
The Gardens are truly blessed not only with wonderful scenery and beautiful forests, but also with immensely generous supporters. Bob and Sunny Evans have graciously sponsored the Children's Adventure Garden, a wonderful place not only to play, but also to learn opening in the near future. After getting a taste of the treetops over a striking ravine from a 400 foot, circular boardwalk, children (and adults) can enjoy hours of stimulating activity in a secure, enclosed location. A truly unique example of an increasingly popular theme garden, this one acre space features naturalistic woodland elements to fascinate youngsters: a cave with waterfall, maze, tree houses, stone climbing slopes, crawdad holes, and many other areas designed just for little ones. Numerous streams teach children from toddlers up about water as they manipulate trickles, interact with every form of the vital resource for which Hot Springs is known from cascades to pools, and even slide down a stone sluice just like pioneers in early Garland County.
Exploring the wonders of the forest is not dead, thanks to the Evans Children's Adventure Garden. Whether you're young or still young at heart, find your own adventure on each visit!
Garden of Pine Wind
Garden designer David Slawson has created a masterpiece in the Japanese tradition, but with an Arkansas twist. See the classical oriental techniques for using stone, water, and plants applied to an artistic interpretation of the landscapes of The Natural State. Enjoy fine examples of the architecture of Asia as you savor the panoramic view of the upper gardens from the native stone and eastern red cedar Sunrise Bridge and the spectacular scenery framed by the traditional masonry arch of the Joy Manning Scott Full Moon Bridge. Other highlights include three streams that arise from sources modeled after the natural springs that inspired America's first federal reserve in 1932. Each is landscaped with cascades and falls built of native Ozark and Ouachita Mountain sandstone that illustrate Dr. Slawson's mastery of the age-old Eastern art of ornamental stone placement. With meadows and pools adorned with azaleas and cherries and a half-mile of accessible trails landscaped with hydrangeas, hollies, and a host of other plants from forests of Asia, there's always something to captivate you in Matzu kaze-en, the Garden of the Pine Wind.
Verna Cook Garvan Pavilion
Verna Cook Garvan Pavilion
The internationally acclaimed architecture firm of E. Fay Jones and Maurice Jennings designed this open-air pavilion in the tradition of Fay's mentor, Frank Lloyd Wright. A stellar example of this firm's signature style, the pavilion inspires all who see it with an intriguing structural system of 2" x 6" redwood trusses and columns. This unique wooden framework appears far too inconsequential to support a cedar shake roof 42 feet in diameter and crowned by a 50-foot tall ornamental iron spire, creating drama on a grand scale. Viewers standing directly under the central opening are treated to the kaleidoscopic pattern of sky against metal this architectural work of art creates. Providing a wonderful vantage point as it rises seven feet above the rose garden lawn on a native stone terrace, the Verna Cook Garvan Pavilion offers the perfect spot to pause and enjoy the natural beauty of Hot Springs and Garvan Woodland Gardens.
Singing Springs Gorge and Millsap Canopy Bridge
Millsap Canopy Bridge
Enjoy this jewel of the forest from one of the most dramatic venues in central Arkansas. At 120 feet in length and 18 feet in height, the gently curving Millsap Canopy Bridge lets every visitor enjoy a bird's eye view of a scenic ravine filled with native cinnamon fern, oakleaf hydrangea, and dogwood. Get up close and personal with the flowers of redbud, sourwood, American fringe tree, and serviceberry over the ornate iron railing of this outstanding example of garden architecture in native stone and southern yellow pine. And, see a collection of heat-tolerant rhododendrons donated by the Ozark Chapter of the American Rhododendron Society that illustrates the Mid-South really can enjoy these spectacular shrubs. But, then, that's the whole idea of the Gardens, exploring new and better ways to create spectacular landscapes for our visitors and your garden.
The Ellipse
The Ellipse
A reinterpretation of one of Mrs. Garvan's original landscapes, the Ellipse features a plantation teak bench she designed to enjoy the show on Daffodil Hill from underneath a massive white oak. This timeless example of garden furnishings serves as the focal point of a seasonal color garden presenting pansies and tulips in spring, impatiens and begonias in summer, and chrysanthemums and violas in fall. It also introduces visitors to Mrs. Garvan's original north walk, which leads on to the Victorian shrub borders of White Oak Walkout, winter interest and lake views along Camellia Trail, scenic overlooks to Singing Springs Gorge, and the Wildflower Meadow.
Three Sisters of Amity Daffodil Hill
This impressive display welcomes spring with true dramatic flair. See thousands of golden chalices raised to the coming season in late February. March brings cheerful flowers in white, yellow and pink complemented by hyacinths and spring-flowering shrubs. See 235 varieties of Narcissus in one of the Gardens' most colorful shows of the year.
Old Brick Hill
Celebrate southwest Arkansas's long brick-making tradition as you stroll this scenic walk. Then, savor beautiful flower borders and rock gardens, Southern style. Here, spring showers bring summer flowers, as lace cap hydrangeas, coleus, lilies, and Satsuki azaleas punctuate the June landscape. Nearby, find yourself surrounded by spring and summer flowering natives of the mountains of Arkansas in the two-acre Wildflower Meadow.