NURTURE


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K Tending Columbus’ Biggest Garden


The house at the center of the Columbus Botanical Gardens wasn’t always in its current spot. It sat where the Lowe’s hardware store is now, but Philip Adams and his brothers and sister donated it in 1998 in honor of their parents, who were both fond of the outdoors. They also donated the land where the house was moved to, section by section — a huge expanse of pure natural beauty amidst the traffic and activity of Georgia’s second-largest city.


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“We’ve got 25 acres of natural preservation right in the middle of town, so to speak,” says Norman Winter, the Gardens’ executive director. “On this 25 acres you’ll see deer and fox and butterflies and birds, but we’re also building gardens, including the brand-new Sam M. Wellborn Camellia Garden, which is going to bring in hundreds, if not thousands, of tourists to see camellias. They’re some of the most loved flowers from the South, and we’ll have a collection that should even bring in international visitors.”


THE ENVIRONMENT


As anyone who’s ever tried to keep up a garden knows, though, it takes hard work — and money. As Winter explains, “the funds to do some painting, keep the lights on, buy some gasoline for the equipment” don’t attract attention the way a world- class camellia garden does, but they’re still vital.


Fortunately, the Adams family, through the Philip M. and Sally H. Adams Fund, helps to provide that support. And Philip Adams says the Community Foundation has helped them do that with minimal stress or paperwork.


“It turns out this is a much easier way for people to donate money,” he says. “You can make one donation to the Community Foundation, and then since it’s a Donor Advised Fund, you can decide who you want to give it to without having to keep up with all the letters and grants. I wish I’d known about it 15 or 20 years ago! It is a really superior way of making donations to charity.”


Also among the $193,309 granted for Environmental Efforts were six grants supporting the Chattahoochee RiverWarden, a tank sponsorship at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll Island, and support for the Georgia Conservancy’s Good Urbanism 101 Program and Trees Columbus’ Holiday Forest. Above, the Adams visit the former Adams farmhouse at the Botanical Gardens.


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