THE KNOXVILLE BOTANICAL GARDENS TO HOLD FIRST FALL FESTIVAL, UNVEIL NEW GARDEN
Fall is the perfect season for pumpkin painting, hayrides and marshmallow roasting. Adults and young people will find all that and more during the first Fall Festival at the Knoxville Botanical Garden and Arboretum (KBGA). Several Sevier County businesses will be in attendance to showcase their products and services.
The finishing touches are being added to the Knoxville Botanical Garden and Arboretum’s newest permanent garden, the Danae Garden, featuring the unique Danae plant propagated at the garden for over 50 years. The finished garden, a collaboration of the Knoxville Garden Club, the KBGA staff and noted landscape architect Sara Hedstrom, will be unveiled in a morning ceremony kicking off the garden’s Fall Festival on Saturday, Oct. 16, The festival features fun for everyone, from hayrides and children’s games to seminars on pruning basics and demonstrations on herbal gifts from the kitchen.
The first annual festival will be Saturday, Oct. 16, from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. at the garden, 2743 Wimpole Ave. in the heart of East Knoxville.
The Danae Garden, a new permanent garden, will be unveiled at 9:45 a.m., preceding the festival. Karen Dean Smith, president of the Knoxville Garden Club, and Jenny Howell Jukes, president of the KBGA’s board of directors and Joe Howell’s daughter, will participate. (Joe Howell was the former owner of the Howell Nursery – the garden’s home.)
“This new garden incorporates many of the unique features that make the botanical gardens so special and highlights an unusual plant propagated here for over 50 years, Danae or poet’s laurel,” said KBGA Executive Director Steve Seifried. “The garden is a collaboration of our staff, the Knoxville Garden Club and noted landscape architect Sara Hedstrom.”
The festival has something for everyone. Seminars and demonstrations will be going on all day. Seminars include Mathew McMillan, the KBGA’s senior gardener, who will lead a seminar of “Pruning Basics” at 12:30 p.m., and Kathy Burke Mihalczo of Erin’s Meadow Herb Farm will speak about “Herbal Gifts from the Kitchen” at 10:30 a.m. Local food, craft and plant vendors will offer a variety of seasonal specialties.
Children will enjoy getting up-close and personal with the animals at the Circle G Ranch petting zoo. There will also be
children’s games such as the pine cone toss, crafts, balloon animals and hayride tours around the gardens.
Vendors from the Sevier County area include Chadwick’s Churn Homemade Ice Cream, Mountain View Orchard and East Fork Nursery.
Admission to the festival is $5 for adults; children 12 and under are free.
“This is an incredible setting for a fall festival, and it is a perfect time for people to visit, whether a first-time guest or a frequent ‘Gardener’,” said Seifried. “In addition to the fun activities, you are surrounded by the beauty of fall in the landscape of East Tennessee. What could be more perfect than that?”
The Knoxville Botanical Garden and Arboretum is situated on the site of the former Howell Nursery in East Knoxville. The nursery was passed down through five generations of the Howell family and was until recently the longest continually operating business in Tennessee.
Surrounded by thousands of feet of stone walls, the garden features winding paths, exotic trees and woodlands, and whimsical round buildings as well as some unique and important horticultural specimens.
