North Carolina Botanical Garden
The North Carolina Botanical Garden (about , plus of nature preserves) is a botanical garden operated by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The primary goal of the Garden is to research, catalog, and promote the native plant species of North Carolina. History. The history of the Garden begins in 1903, when Professor William Chambers Coker began planting trees and shrubs on the central campus (now Coker Arboretum). In 1952, the Trustees of the university dedicated forested for development of a botanical garden. An additional were donated by William Lanier  Hunt. Considerable additions and expansion of the Garden took place from the 1960s onward. A recent expansion effort is the James and Delight Allen Education Center, designed by architect Frank Harmon, the first LEED Platinum certified state-owned building or public museum in North Carolina. The Garden today. Today the Garden comprises 14 collections and display gardens, containing some 5,900 accessions representing about 2,500 species of the 4,700 plant species known to be native or naturalized in North and South Carolina. It has become one of the largest native plant botanical gardens in the Southeastern United States. Admission is free . The Garden is open Tuesday through Sunday, with special educational programs offered regularly. Highlights of the Garden include: The garden also contains a cabin in which playwright and professor Paul Green (1894–1981) performed most of his research and writing. It was moved to the garden in 1991.