Will Rogers Horticultural Gardens
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The Will Rogers Horticultural Gardens (30 acres) are botanical gardens and an arboretum located at 3400 NW 36 Street, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The gardens are open during daylight hours; admission is free.
The gardens began in 1912 when city leaders purchased 160 acres of land. However the area went unused until 1932, when Parks Department horticulturalist Henry Walters began development. He designed and planted a majority of the garden's trees and planting beds, as well as its rockeries, overlooks, and lake, working with the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and Work Projects Administration (WPA).
In 1924 renowned architects Lord & Burnham constructed the Ed Lycan Conservatory in Douglass Park; it was moved to the gardens in 1936, and now houses one of the largest cactus and succulent collections in the world. Thanks to the Central Oklahoma Cacti and Succulent Society, the conservatory received a significant cactus and succulent collection in 1987 as a gift from the estate of Charles and Mary Polaski.
The gardens currently include some 3,000 rose bushes (2 acres), planned and planted by the Oklahoma Rose Society in 1938, dedicated in 1940 as the Oklahoma City Municipal Rose Garden, and modernized in 1950. It also features irises, azaleas, daylilies and peonies. Its arboretum features both native trees and varieties rarely found in Oklahoma. A bust of Will Rogers by Lawrence Tenny Stevens (dedicated 1955) is on the lake's north side.
