About The Springs Botanical Garden

After considerable research and work, a few passionate gardeners and motivated citizens have concluded that the Capital District is ready and able to support a large-scale, regional botanical garden.

Many botanical gardens in the Northeast and across the country thrive and serve an integral role in communities that have smaller populations and less economic diversity than our region does.

The Capital Region, ranging from parts of Columbia County out near Amsterdam up to Washington, Saratoga and Warren counties, is home to nearly 1 million people. Although we are served with numerous gardens, including the Berkshire Botanical Gardens and Yaddo, we still lack one that contributes to our regional identity.

Along with the traditional gardens and landscaping one would expect of a botanical garden, one of the more exciting project ideas is our plan for a greenhouse glass conservatory. This facility will be an oasis during our long winter months, providing a home for lush tropical fauna, desert plants and much more. At the same time, it will serve as a "Green" building example. Heating a large glass conservatory is expensive and, quite simply, not good for the environment. Ours will be different.

There are so many reasons why this project needs to happen for our community. In time I hope you believe this too. In order for this vision to become a reality, support from the entire region is essential.

Thank you in advance for your participation! I look forward to meeting you at our public community meetings.

Sincerely,

Brett Van Zandt
Acting Director

The Capital District-Tech Valley area has no botanical garden identifiable as its regional garden, even though the area shares similar characteristics with many communities across the country that do.
Our region is ready for the development of its own botanical garden. In fact, it is overdue.

The Springs Botanical Garden will offer two significant benefits for our region. First, it will provide the most beautiful and inspiring public gardens within a 60- to 70-mile radius (the area of which encompasses over 1 million people). Second, it will reflect a commitment to healthy regional growth on the part of political and business leaders.

Located on a 15- to 20-acre plot of land, the Springs Botanical Garden will become a nationally renowned public garden. One innovative idea is to construct all facilities inside the Garden with LEED or "Green" design and functions. The conservatory, a high energy consuming building, will be the only one in the country to use 100 percent renewable energy. It will be one of the largest of its kind in the Northeast, providing a focal point for education and community activities.

The gardens themselves will incorporate perennial, annual, Japanese, water, European and American-style landscapes. Visitors will also be able to learn about our region's unique biosphere through the incorporation of existing ecological elements in the park. For example, the bog meadow wetlands in the southern section of Saratoga Spa State Park serve an integral role in that area's ecology. Our plan is to have a set-up where people can walk through and even underneath these wetlands while viewing the creek or river bottom through a glass walkway.

Other notable features of our regional biosphere featured in our educational program will include the Adirondack and Helderberg Mountains and the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers, among others.