Jardines+Botanicos



The [|botanical gardens of San Antonio] were founded in 1980. Its 33 acres in the center of San Antonio and is wheelchair accessible with a special sensory garden for blind people. The displays are rectangular and are changed seasonally. Sometimes the flowers are subdued, exuberant, and humorous. Many different gardens including a rose garden, an old-fashioned garden, sensory garden, sacred garden, shade garden, children’s garden and a Kumamoto en Garden, which was a gift from the city of Kumamoto Japan with finely crafted sculptured and symbolic features. Two main features of the botanical gardens are the [|Lucile Halsell Conservatory] and the Texas Native Trail. The Lucile Halsell Conservatory was designed by Emilio Ambasz and is 90,000 square feet. It was built by the San Antonio Botanical Society and cost $6.9 million. It opened to the public on February 29, 1988 with plants from desert regions and equatorial rainforests. There is an exhibition hall, tropical house, desert house, palm house, fern room and orangery. You enter at ground level and follow a 16-foot tunnel below the surface with different environments. There are biblical and children’s gardens, a carriage house to visit the gift shop and you can eat lunch in the tearoom. The Texas Native Trail area consists of plant community’s characteristic of the Hill Country (Edward Plateau), East Texas Piney Woods and South Texas. Several early Texas houses enhance the Texas Native Trail.

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