Juniper Level Botanic Garden: The Mission, History, and Plans for the Future

Please give generously now to the Juniper Level Botanic Garden Endowment here: https://securelb.imodules.com/s/1209/...

Juniper Level Botanic Garden, JLBG, was established in 1986 when Raleigh native Tony Avent and his wife Michelle M. Avent purchased a 2.2 acre abandoned sandy loam tobacco field in Southern Wake County in central North Carolina. JLBG actively promotes and preserves botanic diversity by bridging the gap between botany and horticulture through plant study, identification, educational outreach, global plant exploration, and by selecting, breeding, and propagating new and little known perennials to share with plant researchers, botanic gardens, and gardeners around the world.

The garden philosophy is to promote botanical diversity by assembling the largest collection possible of growable, winter/summer hardy ornamental plants for our region and display them in an aesthetic, sustainably maintained, healthy garden setting. This philosophy includes obtaining plants from all over the world with a strong emphasis on North American native plants. JLBG's mission, which focuses on ex-situ plant conservation (currently 28,000 plant taxa), research, education, breeding, propagation, and plant distribution, has been entirely funded and supported by a portion of revenues from Plant Delights Nursery, Inc.

Several years ago, we (Anita and I) gifted the entire property, which includes both Plant Delights Nursery and Juniper Level Botanic Garden to NC State University for safe keeping, to which they have gladly agreed. The only thing remaining is to fund the yearly operational expenses of the gardens. The University has established an operational endowment, for which we are currently raising funds.