Applewood Estate

Applewood Estate is a historic property featuring gardens, greenhouses, and landscaped grounds within Flint's Cultural Center in Michigan. The site spans multiple acres and includes specialized plant beds, a collection of tropical and native species, plus preserved buildings from the original residence.

Industrialist Charles Stewart Mott built this estate in the early 1900s as a private residence and filled it with rare plant species. After his death, the Ruth Mott Foundation opened the grounds to the public as an educational and cultural site.

The estate functions as a learning hub where community members gather for workshops on gardening and environmental stewardship. You can observe how local gardeners and school groups use the grounds to understand native plants and ecological practices.

Visitors can explore the grounds independently or join guided tours through the buildings and gardens to learn about the collections and historical details. Spring and summer are the best seasons, when most plants are flowering and the greenhouses are in full activity.

The gardens house a specialized collection of Bird of Paradise flowers, an exotic bloom originally cultivated from South African seeds by Mott himself. These rare plants are still tended in the greenhouses today and form a distinctive focus of the collection.