San Antonio Botanical Garden leaders on Tuesday unveiled a 10-year plan to grow and improve the “living museum.”
To mark the Garden’s 45th anniversary this year, President and CEO Katherine Trumble laid out a vision that includes a large-scale expansion of the 11-acre Texas Native Trails section, which showcases the diverse ecological regions of Texas.
“We’ll revitalize the South Texas, East Texas and Texas Hill Country trails, and then we’re going to add a beautiful new vineyard to celebrate Texas wine culture,” Trumble said. A new West Texas garden will be incorporated to display specimens from the Garden’s rare and endangered collection.
Trumble announced the launch of the first phase of its strategic master plan, an ambitious initiative designed in partnership with the Boston-area landscape design firm Reed Hilderbrand.
The goals of the plan are to enhance the visitor experience, expand conservation efforts, and create a lasting impact on the local community and beyond.
The total cost of the plan hasn’t been calculated, Trumble said, but she estimated that the cost to accomplish the entire project could add up to $100 million.
Another phase of the decade-long project involves transforming exhibit space in the Lucile Halsell Conservatory, creating a new Orchid Pavilion. The Garden’s orchid collection has expanded in recent years from 100 to more than 600 species and varieties of orchids, Trumble said.
She said her favorite part of the effort is a planned new 2.5-acre pollinator meadow “that invites visitors to experience the importance of nature in an entirely new way.”
But another element of the expanded Garden, one the team is most excited about, she said, is a new state-of-the-art horticulture campus.
The campus will include eight greenhouses and an apiary, a place where bees are kept, and an education greenhouse with a seed bank, meeting space, classrooms and a plant laboratory.
Inside the Garden’s greenhouses, 80,000 species are grown every year. The 38-acre garden is home to 35 rare and endangered species of plants.
Revamping the greenhouses will do a lot to enhance the experience for visitors so they can see what it takes to make a garden grow, said Claire Alexander, a member of the Garden Advisory Council. “It’s such a vital part of how the garden operates, and there’s so much to be learned back there, and it’s such a great way to engage every age group.”
But all of that takes money, said Alexander, who first became involved with the garden after receiving a membership as a wedding gift more than 30 years ago.
The nonprofit operates on a $12 million annual budget with revenue coming from donors and grants, venue rentals and gift shop sales, program and admission fees and tax dollars. Built on city-owned land at 555 Funston Place, the Garden is partially supported through the city’s Parks and Recreation Department. In 2022, it received $2.5 million in municipal bond funding.
The Botanical Garden employs 120 people, half of them full-time, and relies on more than 300 volunteers. Last year, about 400,000 people visited the Garden.
Lisa Uhl, who serves as treasurer on the board, said tremendous growth in the past few years is what makes the expansion plans possible. She said the board will launch a fundraising campaign to support the effort.
The Garden last expanded by eight acres in 2017 through a $40 million capital campaign.
“I think it is a real opportunity for us to continue to grow … and to really be a shining spot for the city of San Antonio,” Uhl said.
