In the 1920s, a brick and timber businessman called Arthur Cook purchased a 210-acre site on a woodland peninsula some six miles from Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas. He thought that the site would be good as a future timber location for his company.

Sadly, he died in 1934 and his daughter, Verna Cook Garvan, assumed control of the family’s assets. A self-taught gardener, Verna began to develop the site as a garden and possible future homesite. Over the next 40 years, she planted thousands of specimens and laid out pathways.

On her death, Mrs. Garvan left the property to the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Arkansas which now manages the site as an education, research and public service for visitors.

The glorious botanical gardens feature floral landscapes, streams and waterfalls in a natural woodland setting. Its collections display hundreds of rare shrubs and trees and 160 different types of azaleas.

Today, the Garvan Woodland Gardens is the number one attraction in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

The Gardens have over four miles of shoreline on Lake Hamilton.

Well-fed Koi in the Gardens’ Koi pond.

A sweet nod for children of all ages, home of the Tooth Fairy!