Powell Gardens
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Powell Gardens 915 acres (3.7 km²) are botanical gardens located at 1609 N.W. U.S. Highway 50 in Kingsville, Missouri, USA, 30 miles (50 km) east of Kansas City. They feature 6,000 varieties of plants, with 225,000 plants in seasonal displays, and are open to the public, for a fee, during daylight hours. The Summer 2007 event is Jurassic Gardens! Life-sized replicas of various species of dinosaurs will be out in the Gardens from June 27 through October 7, 2007.
The Gardens date to 1948, when the land was purchased by George E. Powell, Sr. Since then, the site has been a dairy farm, Boy Scout camp, agricultural and natural resource center, and since 1988, a botanical garden with the following areas:
- Entrance Drive - seasonal annuals, evergreen weeping white pines, native oak groves, natural meadows and woodlands with native prairie wildflowers and wild grasses.
- Garden Gatehouse - drought tolerant ornamental plants (mainly native). Dogwood, redbuds, and red sumac, ornamental grasses, and annuals.
- Parking Lot - arboretum of all shrubs and trees native to Kansas and Missouri, with native grasses, shrubs and trees.
- Conservatory - a 50 by 50 foot (15 by 15 m) glass house with seasonal orchids, tropical plants, chrysanthemums, and poinsettias.
- Terrace Beds and Wall - annuals and tropicals..
- Dogwood Walk - almost every variety of dogwood, including flowering dogwood, hybrid dogwoods, and Kousa dogwoods, with roses and magnolias.
- Island Garden - more than 200 varieties of water plants.
- Meadow - native prairie grasses and flowers, burned each spring.
- Chapel Walk and Landscape - native oak-hickory woodland with native woodland wildflowers, including a collection of many varieties of redbud tree.
- Rock & Waterfall Garden - azaleas and rhododendrons, ferns, bleeding hearts, hostas, astilbes, giant butterburs and spring bulbs.
- Perennial Garden - more than 1,200 varieties, including daylilies, daffodils, hibiscus, and hardy asters and chrysanthemums, with ornamental grasses, against an evergreen background.
- Byron Shutz Nature Trail - 3 miles of trail with native and naturalized trees, shrubs, grasses and wildflowers, including biscuitroot, draba, and prairie-plum.
