“Birmingham Botanical Gardens is a lovely place to enjoy nature with your family, friends, or to be by yourself to reflect. I particularly love that each garden tells its own story.”

Carol Waites
Member of the Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens and volunteer with the Friends’ Forman Thompson volunteer group

“Sometimes I feel as if I just need to sit at the Gardens. It’s so peaceful. I love it here.”

Kimberlee Fields (at right)
Member of the Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens with fellow member and good friend Ruby Felton

“From the start, I was literally led into this special world. It has given me a lifelong love of learning and continues to be a place I go as a treat. It’s invigorating. It’s relaxing. It’s soothing. It’s nature.”

Fran Lawlor
Member of the Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens and volunteer with the Friends’ Herbs Growing Group

“Growing up in Alabama surrounded by elders that knew and worked with native plants, I view this internship as an opportunity for gaining lost wisdom in a sense.”

Mandrell McCray (at right)
2022 Shades Valley Rotary Club Intern and member of the Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens with fellow member and intern Truman Douglass

“It’s an ageless thing, from the stroller to forever, that people go to the Gardens. It’s an honor to have it in our city.”

Margi Ingram
Current member, former board member, and longtime donor