Mercer Arboretum and Botanic
Garden
Humble, Texas
March 2008
Mercer
Arboretum is located on the northern outskirts of Houston but feels
like a world away. It began as a 14 acre private garden, bought by
Harris County in 1974. Since then the county, and supporters of the
Arboretum, have acquired adjoining land so that now it encompasses
more than 300 acres, as a combination park, arboretum and botanic
garden. It is divided by a major road with a 20 acre botanic garden
on the east side and 280 acres of arboretum and park on the west
side. In our 3 hour visit we saw only the east side before being
rained out. If the weather had been nice we could easily have spent
the rest of the day exploring the west side.
What we did see was pretty impressive. The entrance and the area
around the visitor center are inviting and spacious enough for
people to gather.
The area is also decorated with cute, whimsical sculptures. A nice
touch.
The trails are nicely laid out and
very attractive.
Signage is abundant and informative.
There are a number of large interpretive panels and nearly all
species are identified by name labels. In fact, my only complaint
about Mercer is that sometimes there were too many signs.
I love seeing lots of
signs because they are such an important educational tool, so maybe
instead of fewer signs they should think about using a smaller size
in some areas. For instance in this bed the signs are right along
the trail so would have been easily readable at half the size. This
would maintain the information but reduce the clutter.
I was very impressed with the Endangered Species garden. Lots of
gardens debate whether or not they should put endangered species on
display and, if they do, should they interpret them as endangered.
They worry about the possibility of theft. I think Mercer has shown
that the threat is overblown and is far outweighed by the
educational opportunity presented.
The entrance to the Endangered Species garden is through a handsome
archway.
They've created a very informative
garden without sacrificing aesthetics by combining the endangered
plants with lots of attractive companion plants. All the endangered
plants are well-labeled so easy to identify. There is also a large
interpretive panel about the garden.
Under the guidance of the county and
its friend's group, Mercer continues to grow and develop. When we
were there, work was going on to renovate the Lily Pond and Tea
House. It doesn't look like much right now, but it's easy to
envision how beautiful it can be in the future.
I was really impressed with Mercer.
It's a free garden but certainly warrants an admission charge.
There was a tremendous amount to see even in March and lots of
exciting gardens were not yet visible. The garden of gingers looked
to be one of the largest around, but very few of the plants had
emerged yet. The same was true of the Iris collection. Makes me
want to plan another trip to see Mercer at another time of
year.
Click here to see more photos of Mercer.
To visit the official website of Mercer Gardens, click
here.