Texas Discovery Gardens

Located in Fair Park, a National Historic Landmark District, the 7.5-acre Texas Discovery Gardens is a non-profit educational center filled with native and adapted plants. This museum of plants began in the 1930s with the construction of the Hall of Horticulture, built for the Texas Centennial Exposition. The hall included a glass "Garden Room" that was the first public conservatory in the Southwest. The Hall of Horticulture was renamed the Dallas Garden Center after the Texas Centennial Exposition ended, and the site continued to develop over the next several decades. By 2000, it had evolved to become the Texas Discovery Gardens, after hosting the first live butterfly exhibit in the conservatory during the 1995 Texas State Fair. Today, visitors can enjoy numerous outdoor gardens and trails, live exhibit displays and demonstrations, and an expanded butterfly house featuring a two-story tropical rainforest habitat with hundreds of butterflies.

The history of the Texas Discovery Gardens begins with the Texas Centennial Exposition, held in 1936 in Fair Park. A Hall of Domestic Arts and a Hall of Horticulture were constructed, with a "Garden Room" that became first public conservatory in the Southwest. Originally half the size of the present structure, the Hall of Horticulture was renamed the Dallas Garden Center after the Texas Centennial Exposition ended. During the 1940s, the site temporarily became the headquarters for the War Rationing Board during World War II, but by the end of the decade, it was converted into the Women's Building for the annual Texas State Fair. A Scent Garden filled with aromatic plants was constructed in the 1950s, becoming one of the first permanent gardens on site, while a new indoor display area was added for flower shows.

During the 1960s and 1970s, the prominent landscape architect Joe Lambert designed the Leftwich Reflecting Pool and the adjacent Circular Lawn. The name of the site was changed to the Dallas Civic Garden Center in 1982 to better reflect its public mission. In 1988, the Grand Allee du Meadows was completed, with a large fountain as a decorative water feature. The original conservatory was restored to resemble its 1930s appearance, and the Faerie Banton Kilgore Rose Garden was dedicated in 1990. Once again, the site's name was changed, this time to the Dallas Horticultural Center. In 1995, it hosted the first live butterfly immersion exhibit inside the conservatory during the annual Texas State Fair. The following year, the Benny Simpson Texas Native Plant Collection was added. As the site continued to evolve, the name was changed again, becoming the Texas Discovery Gardens in 2000.

In 2009, the original conservatory was restored and enlarged to become the Rosine Smith Sammons Butterfly House and Insectarium, with a grand reopening of the museum. The Discovery Art Gallery was opened the following year, with a focus on environmental education through art exhibits. The first exhibition, Global Swarming, highlighted the plight of honeybees at risk from Colony Collapse Disorder, caused by environmental factors such as pesticides. In 2012, the Dallas County Master Gardeners Association created a new garden on site featuring drought-tolerant plants. Other efforts towards ecological landscaping include the 2018 Conservation Canyon Project, which reclaimed an asphalt road on the property and restored it to a Blackland Prairie Habitat with native grasses.

Murals painted on outbuilding walls depict the Trans-Pecos and Blackland Prairie biomes of Texas. Another mural on the wall of the EarthKeepers Children's Classroom depicts four distinct "eco-regions" in Texas, with illustrations of native flora and fauna. There are multiple gardens and trails throughout the property, each plentiful with plants and flowers. The Butterfly House and Insectarium includes a Butterfly Emergence Chamber, where visitors can observe species such as the Paper Kite Butterfly emerging from their chrysalises, as well as moths emerging from their cocoons. A Honeybee Tree exhibit shows a queen bee "surrounded by her court," where visitors can watch the bees interacting with their hive. Elsewhere on the property, a rustic Snakes of Texas exhibit house features live animals and information about Texas snakes commonly found in gardens.

In 2019, a model train exhibit was also installed at the Texas Discovery Gardens. Miniature trains run in a loop through a small, dusty landscape designed with a Southwestern theme. Meanwhile, each day at noon, entomologists release butterflies into the Butterfly House conservatory as a public viewing event. The “Brushfoot Boulevard" is a gentle outdoor walking path along which visitors can observe Brush-footed butterflies, the largest family of butterflies, with more than 6,000 species. Named for the brush-like hairs on their front legs, these tiny sensors help the butterflies to detect scents. Brush-footed butterflies include many of the world’s most distinctive and colorful butterflies, including Monarchs, Admirals, Question Marks, Buckeyes, Crescents, Checkerspots, Snouts, Satyrs, Emperors, Ladies, and Leafwings.

About, Texas Discovery Gardens. Accessed April 26th, 2023. https://txdg.org/about.

History, Texas Discovery Gardens. Accessed April 26th, 2023. https://txdg.org/history.

Permanent Art, Texas Discovery Gardens. Accessed April 26th, 2023. https://txdg.org/permanent-art.

Texas Discovery Gardens, Fair Park Dallas. Accessed April 26th, 2023. https://www.fairparkdallas.com/texas-discovery-gardens.