Kaul Wildflower Garden

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The Hugh and Bobbe Kaul Wildflower Garden is a seven-acre naturalistic rock garden showcasing native wildflowers which is located in a former sandstone quarry on the northern edge of the Birmingham Botanical Gardens in Lane Park.

The quarry was created by the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s for materials used in the park such as the Allan Gray Fish Hatcheries, as well as for construction of Vulcan Park. The abandoned site eventually became overgrown with severe erosion from numerous springs.

Gardens volunteers Bobbe Kaul, Weesie Smith, Margeret Wimberly and Sue Kinner, who were also involved in the Little Garden Club, commissioned Swiss landscape architect Zenon Schreiber to design improvements to the aesthetics and accessibility of the site. He laid out gravel paths and introduced strategically-located walls, built of sandstone from the site, to enhance the beauty of the stream courses.

The garden's plantings showcase Alabama's diverse woodland flora in a series of vignettes taking advantage of variations in soils, shade and slope. More than 400 species of native trees, shrubs, vines and flowers, including native azaleas, are viewable in the garden.

The garden was dedicated in honor of Bobbe Kaul and her husband, lumber executive Hugh Kaul, in 1986. The garden is maintained by Botanical Gardens staff and volunteers headed by curator John Manion, who succeeded Patrick Daniel in 2010.

References

  • "To Reveal and Enhance: Birmingham's Kaul Wildflower Garden." (March-April 1986) Southern Accents

External links