The Toledo Botanical Garden is at once a beloved community institution and a struggling enviro-cultural destination.  I have always been impressed during visits that local arts and science groups have dedicated exhibition and meeting spaces on the grounds.  These always seem to be active.  However, the garden has been something of a fumbled football that finally landed in the well-managed hands of the Toledo Metroparks system.

The garden has big plans for the future, if today’s article in the Toledo Blade is any indication.  Excerpts and link below:

The master plan released today calls for many additions, including a glass-enclosed conservatory, new visitors and events centers, a learning village near Hawkins Elementary School, and a children’s garden.

It also envisions enhancement of existing gardens and structures, such as the greenhouses near the West Bancroft Street entrance.

The work is to be paid for with future donations and possible grants.

“We’re trying to put in place a plan to elevate this garden to a world-class garden, and to continue to be many things to many people,” Executive Director Janet Schroeder said.

Visitors young and old could stroll along a serpentine path that would be flanked in part by towering bamboo.

“There is going to be a tunnel of bamboo leading from the parking lot area, into the garden, to the transformative threshold,” Ms. Schroeder said.

While the notion of bamboo groves might conjure to mind warmer East Asian locales, Ms. Schroeder noted that hardier species of bamboo grow in temperate climates like northwest Ohio.

As a centerpiece, the master plan calls for construction of a large conservatory containing “designed landscape under glass.”

More here…

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080717/NEWS16/807170342/-1/RSS10

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