Birmingham Botanical Gardens is open to all, every day of the week. Spring/summer hours are 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. (March 13–November 5). Please note that face coverings are optional inside City of Birmingham-owned buildings and venues, including the Garden Center and other indoor facilities at the Gardens, effective March 1, 2022. For more information and guidelines for visiting, please click here. We look forward to your visit!

The Library at the Gardens

Use your library card here!

Archives & Rare Book Room | Art Gallery | Catalog | Honors & Memorials | Thyme to Read | Contact Us

The Seed Exchange

About The Library

The Library at Birmingham Botanical Gardens is part of the Public Libraries in Jefferson County, making it the only public horticultural library in the United States. Simply present your blue or black library card to check out one of over 8,000 books, DVDs, audio books and magazines from our circulating collection. As a full-service public library, we can access all of the vast resources of the entire Public Library System in Jefferson County. Stop by today and dig into our collection—your knowledge is sure to grow!

Hours of Operation

Visit Monday–Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and browse our collection. We hope you'll pull up a chair and stay awhile!

 The Library Offers:

  • Large selection of new gardening books

  • Children's section. Click here for the Kid's Catalog!

  • Over 65 different circulating gardening and horticulture magazines

  • Archives and Rare Book Room

  • A large collection of DVDs

  • Free internet access

  • Free Wi-Fi

  • Magic School Bus DVDs

  • Eyewitness books and DVDs

  • Resource material for Hands-on Activities Science Program (HASP) modules on Living Things, Organisms, Plant Growth and Development, Butterflies, Ecosystems and Earthworms

  • Multiple copies of Peterson's First Guides: Forests, Trees, Urban Wildlife, Butterflies & Moths and Caterpillars

  • The entire Discovering Alabama series on DVD

  • Teacher Resource Area with lesson plan materials

  • Used books & magazines for sale

  • Friendly staff and volunteers to help with all your gardening questions
     

CLICK HERE TO SEARCH THE CATALOG OR RESERVE A BOOK

Complete list of newest available titles at JCLC

Contact Us

205.414.3920 | phone
205.414.3922 | fax

Got a gardening question? Email us

Original brochure for The Library at The Gardens 


Give a Cutting, Take a Cutting!

The Library at the Gardens has a new program that propagation enthusiasts are sure to dig! Simply bring us a cutting rooted in water or soil (well-established roots are a must!), then choose a cutting from our collection to take home. Lavender, pothos, Christmas cactus, jewel orchid, flame violet, Chinese evergreen, umbrella plant, rosemary, and peperomia are available!

 

Honey for Sale

Take advantage of the Library at the Gardens' curbside service to purchase locally sourced honey from Birmingham Botanical Gardens' hives or honey flavored in cinnamon, lemon, or jalapeño from Ivy Brook Apiary.

Cost: $10/bottle (Birmigham Botanical Gardens)
Cost: $7-12 (Ivy Brook Apiary)

Call 205.588.4593 or 205.533.6062 to schedule a pickup between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. weekdays. 

 

2022 Thyme to Read Book Club 

A monthly gathering hosted by the Library at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens.

Join us in person at 6 p.m. on select Tuesdays to discuss the month's reading selection.

For more information, contact Library Director Hope Long at 205.588.4593 or [email protected] 

Thyme To Read is co-sponsored by the Alabama Humanities Foundation, a state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. 

 

Explore our upcoming 2022 book selections below.

Tuesday, June 7, 2022

The Forgotten Garden

By Kate Morton

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Unearthing The Secret Garden: The Plants and Places That Inspired Frances Hodgson Burnett

By Marta McDowell

Tuesday, August 2, 2022

The Last Chinese Chef

By Nicole Mones

Tuesday, September 6, 2022

The Growing Season: How I Built a New Life—and Saved an American Farm

By Sarah Frey

Tuesday, October 4, 2022

The Everglades: River of Grass

By Marjory Stoneman Douglas

Tuesday, November 1, 2022

Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal

By Mark Bittman

Tuesday, December 6, 2022

Murder in the Secret Garden

By Ellery Adams

Honors and Memorials To Support the Library at the Gardens

Don't see a book in the library that you think we should have? We welcome suggestions and donations. You can also choose to memorialize or honor a relative, friend, or colleague and help grow the Library at Birmingham Botanical Gardens, a program of the nonprofit Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens, at the same time. Be sure to note that your tribute gift is for the Library at the Gardens. Thank you for your support!