The River Oaks Garden Club works with many members of our community.  Our main collaboration is Bayou Bend Gardens:

River Oaks Garden Club and Bart Brechter, curator of the gardens, who have worked together to transform Bayou Bend Gardens into the state’s only formal organic public garden.

The Gardens of Bayou Bend are the vision of Houston philanthropist, collector and garden enthusiast, Miss Ima Hogg, the only daughter of James Stephen Hogg, Texas’ first native born governor. Miss Hogg studied architecture, landscape architecture and garden design, which she adapted to a domestic scale and to the Houston Gulf Coast climate. Her creation of a total environment encompassing her house and garden is evident as the garden becomes an extension of the house.

The heavily wooded 14 acres along Buffalo Bayou include eight formal gardens. Each is unique in its own way. Three of these are named for a statue of a goddess and muse that presides over their area, Clio, Diana and Euterpe. The other gardens are named White, East, Butterfly and Carla.

The gardens are noted for rare Duchess De Caze Pink Camellias that are no longer available in nurseries, along with varieties of Azalea, Gardenias, Antique Roses and seasonal plantings that keep the gardens blooming all year.

Just to name a few of the other communities we assist:

Houston Arboretum and Nature Center:     http://www.houstonnaturecenter.com/

Mercer Arboretum & Botanic Gardens:  http://www.hcp4.net/community/parks/mercer

The Big Thicket:  www.nps.gov/bith/