Will Rogers Gardens, Public garden and arboretum in Oklahoma City, United States.
Will Rogers Gardens is a 30-acre (12 ha) public garden at NW 36th Street and Portland Avenue in Oklahoma City. It contains the 7-acre (2.8 ha) Margaret Annis Boys Arboretum, the Charles E. Sparks Rose Garden, and the Ed Lycan Conservatory, plus display beds of daylilies, iris, azaleas, herbs and peonies. The Garden Exhibition Building is the main building.
City leaders bought 160 acres (65 ha) of former dairy farmland in 1912. Horticulturist Henry Walters began developing the site in 1932 and worked through the 1930s with the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Work Projects Administration. The gardens are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Oklahoma City Council of Garden Clubs, organized in 1921 to promote horticulture and conservation, has been based at the gardens since 1938 and meets in the Garden Exhibition Building. The Oklahoma Rose Society planted the rose garden with 3,000 bushes that year; in 1986 it was renamed for Charles E. Sparks, a Parks Department supervisor who worked there.
The exhibition building offers regular classes and programs focused on gardening and nature topics for visitors of all ages. The grounds also serve as a venue for private events such as weddings and community gatherings.
The Ed Lycan Conservatory was originally built in 1924 and relocated to this location in 1936, now housing collections of cacti and succulents. This relocation allowed a specialized collection of drought-tolerant plants to be established and maintained here.
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