Boxerwood Gardens facts for kids
Boxerwood Nature Center and Woodland Garden is a special place in Rockbridge County, Virginia, United States. It's like a big outdoor museum for plants! This beautiful garden covers about 15 acres (6 hectares) and is filled with many different kinds of trees and shrubs. It's located near Lexington in the lovely Shenandoah Valley. Boxerwood started as a private garden in 1952 and became so important that it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.
This amazing garden has thousands of different trees and shrubs, all carefully labeled. You can find over 1,300 special types of plants here. Some of the cool collections include tiny conifers, beautiful magnolias, pretty dogwoods, colorful rhododendrons and azaleas, and elegant Japanese maples.
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Exploring Boxerwood's Plant Collections
Boxerwood is home to a huge variety of plants from all over the world. It's a great place to learn about different trees and how they grow.
Unique Tree Varieties
The garden has many interesting trees. For example, you can see 163 different kinds of Acer palmatum, which are also known as Japanese Maples. There are also rare trees like the Sicilian Fir (Abies nebrodensis) and the Paperbark Maple (Acer griseum), which has bark that peels like paper.
Flowering Shrubs and Trees
Boxerwood also features many beautiful flowering plants. You can find the Bottlebrush Buckeye (Aesculus parviflora) with its tall, white flowers, and the Red Buckeye (Aesculus pavia) with its bright red blooms. The White Fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus) has delicate white flowers that look like fringes. In winter, the Winterberry (Ilex verticillata) stands out with its bright red berries.
Evergreens and Unique Forms
The garden has many evergreens too, like the Hinoki Falsecypress (Chaemaecyparis obtusa) and the Japanese Cedar (Cryptomeria japonica). You can also see a weeping Serbian Spruce (Picea omorika 'Pendula'), which has branches that hang down gracefully. The Baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) is another interesting tree that can grow in wet areas.
Fun for Kids at Boxerwood
Boxerwood isn't just for plant experts; it's also a fantastic place for kids to explore and play in nature!
The PlayTrail
The PlayTrail is a special nature playground designed just for younger children. Here, kids can have lots of fun adventures. They can run through plant tunnels, float leaves down a mini creek, and even make mud pies in the mud kitchen. There's also a tiny house mountain to climb! The rules here are simple: "make noise," "touch anything," "get dirty," and "have fun."
Fairy Forest and Wetlands
Another magical spot is the Fairy Forest, where children can use natural materials to build their own tiny homes for fairies. There's also a fun wetland walk. Visitors can cross a cool zig-zag bridge that goes over the garden's wetlands, observing the plants and animals that live there.
Pollinator Garden
In the fall of 2016, Boxerwood added a special pollinator garden. This garden is full of plants that attract pollinators like bees and butterflies. It's a great place to learn about how these important insects help plants grow.
