Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens
Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens is a former USDA plant-introduction station that has developed into a 51-acre botanical garden. It is located is Chatham County, Georgia, south of Savannah. History The garden's collection began in the late 1880s when property owner Mrs. H. B. Miller planted three giant Japanese timber bamboo (Phyllostachys bambusoides) plants. By 1915 an impressive bamboo grove developed, which drew the attention of noted botanist and plant explorer David Fairchild. In 1919 Barbour Lathrop, a friend of Fairchild, purchased the site from Mrs. Miller for $5,430 and leased it to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for $1. Noted plant explorer Frank Meyer, David Bisset and Alfonso McClure were vital players in the development of the facility as a federally funded plant-introduction station throughout the mid-20th century. In 1979 the USDA closed the site and in 1983 deeded it to the University of Georgia; it remains part of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Plant collections and gardens Today, Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens' collections contain around 60 bamboo taxa, said to be the largest American bamboo collection open to the public east of California. Most specimens (genera Phyllostachys and Bambusa) were planted in the 1920s and