Great Lawn Garden

The site of the Garden's largest events, including the tented Garden of Eden Ball, the Great Lawn Garden is flanked on the east by the Strickland Border and on the west by the Color Border and Vine Arbor, which showcases a variety of evergreen and deciduous vines, both native and exotic.

Known simply as the Great Lawn before a planned 2026 renovation, the space became the Great Lawn Garden after a record-breaking bulb planting for Atlanta SUPER Blooms!, a celebration of the Garden's 50th anniversary, when about 140,000 bulbs were planted on the lawn for the first time. The timing was perfect because the lawn was due for its 10-year sod replacement.

But as the blooms faded, plans to replace the bulb beds with new grass were scrapped — the masses of flower color had been so well received by Garden guests, said Scott McMahan, vice president of horticulture and collections.

Instead, several of the the new, comma-shaped beds have been maintained, new drains and irrigation added, and the beds planted as mixed borders. The design, by Tres Fromme and Amanda Bennett, will feature evergreen shrubs and perennials as a backdrop for colorful summer annuals in front.

The Great Lawn was donated by the Kresge Foundation in 1990 and renovated in February 2009, then again in 2016 with Bermuda 'TifTuf.' Horticulturists continuously strive to make environmentally conscious decisions about the products used to care for the lawn.

Nestled near the west corner of the Dorothy Chapman Fuqua Conservatory, just off the Great Lawn, is Palm Corner, featuring palms hardy to north Georgia; on the opposite side is the Conifer Garden. This celebrated collection demonstrates the diversity of conifers and how they grow in the Southeast. The palms are layered: tall Trachycarpus (windmill palm) in the back; shorter needle palms (Rhapidophyllum) in the middle; and 6- to 7-foot palms (Sabal and Palmetto) in the front. Viburnum nudum, or smooth witherod, can also be found here, bearing pink and blue fruits in August.

These hardy plants complement the non-hardy collections found in the Conservatory.