Opening ceremony slated for botany garden

The first spade of earth for the planting of the new Botanical Garden at UW–Madison will be turned at a 10 a.m. opening ceremony on Friday, May 14.

Phil Certain, dean of the College of Letters and Science, and Ken Sytsma, chair of the Botany Greenhouses and Botanical Garden Committee, will preside at the ceremony, which will initiate the planting stage of the expanded and reconfigured oasis in the center of the UW–Madison campus.

The garden, located along University Avenue just below Birge Hall, will more than double in size to 1.2 acres and, when completed, will feature trees, shrubs, and herbaceous perennials and annuals representing more than 500 species from around the world. The $400,000 renovation, paid for with gifts directed to the project, will also include a central plaza, benches, a pond with a bridge and waterfall, a dry riverbed and other features.

To help pay for plantings for the garden, the botany department will be selling 1-foot by 1-foot commemorative tiles, which can be inscribed for placement in the garden’s central plaza. The tiles will cost $520 each.

To purchase a tile, or for more information about the project, contact Barbara Erlenborn of the botany department at (608) 262-2092.

For more information about the Botanical Garden expansion and the commemorative tiles, visit http://www.botany.wisc.edu/Garden/.