Nearly a decade has passed since the Fort Worth Botanic Garden began undergoing some substantial changes (“Botanic Garden Growing?” Aug 17, 2016). The biggest shift has been admission.
Except for a fee to the Japanese Garden, general admission had been free. Now for nonmembers, it’s $14 for adults, $8 for children (3-5), and free for those 2 and under. However, there are a few free-admission days throughout the year, including Juneteenth (Fri, Jun 19), the Celebramos Kick-Off (Sat, Sep 19), Veterans Day (Wed, Nov 11), and Earth Day (Fri, Apr 23, 2027).
Did charging a fee reduce accessibility like we thought it would? Possibly. But it also provided some of the funding for the much-needed repairs and improvements that began in the 2020s, without which, instead of saying, “Can I afford to?,” we might be asking, “Why go at all?”
The Japanese Garden has quietly benefited from all the broader improvements. Work there is aimed less at reinventing the space and more at preserving the character of a landscape that has been a centerpiece of the Botanic Garden since debuting in 1973. When you do visit this true Japanese strolling space, you’ll notice the love and attention paid to the bamboo plants; the cherry, magnolia, and maple trees; and the 1,200-plus koi fish throughout the Japanese Garden’s 7.5 acres. In partnership with the Fort Worth Japanese Society, there is also a biannual Japanese Festival in April and November with hands-on experiences, cultural demonstrations, tea ceremonies, and live performances, including taiko drumming by the band Goisagi (see: “Fat Drum,” pg. 21).
The transition of the garden’s management from the city to the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) in October 2020 prompted a rethinking of the master plan. In anticipation of public funding for long-standing deferred maintenance and the capital replacement of aging facilities throughout the garden, FWBG initiated a coordinated planning strategy for current and future structures across the campus. The garden is also now closely integrated with BRIT. Together, they provide programming that includes conservation efforts, education, and scientific research to a broader audience.
Improvements have taken longer than expected, but they are well underway. Some things got worse before they got better, but I think we’ve all experienced that with our own homes at some point. For example, the Rainforest Conservatory’s repairs raised safety concerns (falling glass and such), so it was shuttered until 2019, when the major repairs were completed.
One huge project, the new “family garden” discussed all those years ago, is now becoming a reality. With a little more than $17 million of the $19 million goal, construction of the Baker Martin Family Garden, an interactive, kid-focused green space, has now begun.
Along with the family garden, other projects online thanks to public funds include improvements to the Moncrief Garden Center, the Rose Garden, and Tinsley Rock Springs Woods, while the area in the Southwest Quadrant that includes the Backyard Vegetable Garden, Compost Outpost, and the Horseshoe and Trial Gordon Gardens has been deliberately left as unprogrammed space at the moment.
FWBG no longer has the light calendar of events it once had. From the popular Butterflies in the Garden event to LEGO and dinosaur installations, holiday light strolls in the winter, and the Japanese Festival every spring and fall, there is much to see and do. In fact, Blooms & Beats with live music by Tom Sless is 6:30pm Fri, May 8 ($15). Plus, there are now art classes, docent-led tours, forest bathing, and homeschool-day events on the books.
Weekly publisher Lee Newquist and contributor Juan R. Govea recently visited the Japanese Garden, and their photos inspired the art for this special issue. Along with Weekly Art Director Ryan Burger’s interpretation of one of Govea’s pics for the cover, I created the collage for this spread. O-tanoshimi kudasai (essentially “enjoy”).
