A WORLD OF BOTANICAL WONDER

The entryway into the delightful world of the San Antonio Botanical Gardens is surprisingly not a garden at all. Instead, it is the beautifully restored Daniel J. Sullivan Carriage House, built in 1896 and designed by English immigrant and architect Alfred Giles in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. Almost one hundred years later, the Carriage House was offered to the San Antonio Botanical Society provided they move it from its original location. The Society had a place for it, of course, having established the gardens in the 1970’s on former waterworks land that once served as a limestone rock quarry. The stone Carriage House was carefully disassembled, stone block by stone block, and reassembled and restored. Its current status is gateway to a world of shaded pathways and formal gardens erupting in colorful blooms, the futuristic Lucile Halsell Conservatory with its soaring glass greenhouses, and the Texas Native Trail featuring early Texas houses reconstructed along the trail to help interpret the regional story of native botanicals. The Gardens maintain a steady events schedule of engaging programs designed to entertain and educate including a special Gardens by Moonlight tour, frequent plant sales, Starlight Movies in the Gardens, and the craft beer enthusiast’s favorite – Brews and Blooms. The Gardens also offer garden and nature classes for children and adults, group tours, garden walks, and community outreach programs like presentations on water saving tips and growing drought resistant native plants.