Charlotte Taylor returned to her roots -- caring for small nonprofits -- when she became executive director of the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks last September.
Before her time as development director for the Fay Jones School of Architecture and later campuswide at the University of Arkansas, Taylor's specialty was working with more intimate groups, like the Austin (Texas) Symphony and the Alpha Delta Pi sorority.
21st Annual Greening of the Garden
What: A dinner, bar and auction to benefit the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks
When: 5:30 p.m. May 10
Where: Botanical Garden of the Ozarks in Fayetteville
Information: bgozarks.org or 750-2620
The Botanical Garden caught her attention as a place with plenty of potential.
"The garden has only been open to the public for eight years, so the ground level has been set, but now [is a time] for a lot of goals and aspirations," Taylor says. "I felt like with my skills, we could take them to the next stage."
Back when she returned to Northwest Arkansas, nearly 20 years ago, she recalls driving her two young sons to soccer practice and passing a sign in a pasture along Crossover Road that said "Future home of the Botanical Garden."
She, her husband and sons volunteered there and delighted in seeing the dream become a reality. The early volunteers secured the good swath of land -- 42 acres on what was then the edge of town, only 6 of them used so far -- and it's since coincided with the trail system.
Now, she'd like it to rise to the occasion, filling the remainder of those acres with plants, gardens and educational areas to become the next big attraction in an urban area.
"We should really take advantage of that and make the most for all the residents and tourists alike," Taylor says. "They come to see Crystal Bridges, but many will see if there's a botanical garden in the area. We are literally on the trail system, and most botanical gardens don't have that."
Her first order of business: walk through the entire garden and dream of how it could grow.
"From the top of the road, we literally walked every inch of the garden and made notes about things to change, what needed to happen, what we needed to fix and what makes it better," Taylor says.
Her vision is, in part, to continue that of the board of directors and other volunteers: pushing the gardens to develop the property beyond the creek and closer to the lake.
Among the hurdles in doing so is letting the community know exactly what's offered to them through garden membership, increasingly popular education programming and the ability to host various functions -- parties, weddings, quinceaneras, memorials and corporate meetings.
"My goal is for us to figure out who we are, what we are and what we want to be for the community and grow awareness of us," she says.
Starting in May is a new membership program with a variety of levels. Each one comes with basic admission. A member can come to the garden as often as he likes. Only now it comes with a reciprocal arrangement for free entry to other botanical gardens around the country, such as Garvan Gardens in Hot Springs, Powell Garden in Kansas City and the Tulsa Botanic Garden, among others.
Members with young children can take advantage of the Little Sprouts program, a weekly garden oriented lesson, singing and play time for preschool age children on Wednesday mornings.
"We encourage if you have kids to go ahead and become members," Taylor says. "If you come to [classes], you pay a lot more, paying each time."
New is a spin-off program called Garden Buds for elementary age children, which is more advanced, detailed and science based. In it, kids learn the basics of what makes plants grow and how to care for them, including planting a pumpkin patch in the spring and harvesting them in the fall, as well as composting, recycling and weather systems.
But most exciting for botanical garden lovers of all ages is the arrival of new hours of operation starting in June. For years, the hours have been 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., but now Tuesday nights will extend to 8 o'clock for live "Tyson Tuesday Nights" full of music, cooking demonstrations, one-on-ones with gardening experts and more.
The first Tyson Tuesday Night will include a live performance of "Pinocchio" by singers from Opera in the Ozarks on June 7.
"It's a chance to enjoy the garden, to see, hear or do something special in it," Taylor says. "For people who come from Benton County after work, if it closes at 5, you miss people who work every day. We're opening the doors to a lot of people who otherwise might not be here and want to come back again and again."
NAN Profiles on 04/24/2016