Growing up, Louella “Lou” Baker Martin and her family would visit the Fort Worth Botanic Garden every Sunday. They were regular guests at the Rose Garden, the first project built on the botanic garden campus on University Drive.
Her grandfather’s nursery, Baker Bros. Nursery, planted trees at the botanic garden. Decades laters, their trunks are still standing.
At the Nov. 16 groundbreaking of the Baker Martin Family Garden, named in honor of her and her family’s legacy, Baker Martin commended the institution for how it’s expanded and turned into the “beautiful” place it is today. Baker Martin sees the new garden as an opportunity to spark inspiration throughout and beyond Fort Worth.
“We just hope that this family garden will be a catalyst for other organizations to continue to improve Fort Worth,” said Baker Martin.
Shovels hitting dirt on the project marked the start of a new era for the garden, which will celebrate its 90th anniversary Dec. 18. Four years after the city handed daily operations of the garden to the nonprofit Botanical Research Institute of Texas, garden officials are making moves to implement a new master plan and invest millions of public and private dollars into the grounds.
“I know that this plan is truly just the first phase of many for this beautiful botanic garden,” said Mayor Mattie Parker at the groundbreaking ceremony.
Growth-defining eras
The idea of constructing a botanic garden started as early as the 1910s. That proposal came with questions from city leaders who asked if it was a good investment in the community, according to the garden’s Executive Vice President Bob Byers. City leaders eventually pushed ahead with the idea.
Rock Springs Park was the first acreage purchase in 1912 to go toward the construction of the botanic garden. Then, city forester Raymond C. Morrison saw the opportunity in 1926 for the park to become a larger natural setting consisting of trails, lagoons and ponds. By 1930, a comprehensive plan was introduced by an architectural firm, envisioning a vista through a grove of trees connecting Rock Springs Park to the Trinity River.
Discussions between the city and its residents also led to the push of what was then a major community project, the Rose Garden.
With support from the Fort Worth Garden Club, the Rose Garden was completed in 1933. One year later, Rock Springs Park was renamed and established as the Fort Worth Botanic Garden.
The next phase for the garden was marked by the post-Depression era, according to Byers. The ’40s and ’50s were marked by Depression era-development programs, and the Fort Worth Garden Club stepped up to figure out how to keep the garden afloat on both financial and administrative levels.
Some of the club’s members worked for several years as volunteers at the garden to support those efforts, according to Byers.
“If the garden was going to do well in the long term, it had to grow,” said Byers, thus marking the ’60s and ’70s as another era for the garden’s development. This led to plans for the Japanese Garden, which was handed off to the Fort Worth Botanical Society.
The Fort Worth Garden Club, a closed membership that requires an invitation to join, determined that in order to support the construction of a new garden, it would need more boots on the ground. Funding from the federal government supported job training programs to teach botanical society members the required skills to bring expansion projects to life.
Considering the number of people joining the society, garden leaders got behind the idea of the garden center, a central location to conduct educational and training programs.
“There have been all these massive changes over the years and I think the important thing to remember here is, if you’re not willing to change and you don’t grow, you die,” said Byers.
The garden has been fortunate through several eras, added Byers, as people have recognized the need for community involvement and investment.
The last decade has been the most significant in the history of the garden, said Byers, and that can be credited to several individuals including former Mayor Betsy Price, City Council members, Park & Recreation Department Director Richard Zavala and assistant park director Sandra Youngblood.
“A bunch of people at the city have really stepped up to make this work,” Byers said.
Merging with the nonprofit research organization, the Botanical Research Institute of Texas — or BRIT — marked a new era for the botanic garden in 2020.
BRIT began managing the garden that year in an effort to improve the garden’s chronic underfunding and low attendance rates. Relying solely on city funding, the garden was plagued with a $1.2 million annual operating debt and a backlog of repairs and improvements.
The public-private partnership introduced an admission fee to the garden, which was previously free to all visitors. The admission fee largely received negative feedback from the community at the time, but it was the right decision for the institution, said Fort Worth Botanic Garden CEO and President Patrick Newman.
“The proof is all around us as you look at the growth,” Newman said. “I think, to me, that is really the key indication here that this new model is working and successful, and it’s continuing to drive us forward.”
The idea of the fee was studied by a garden task force, who looked closely at making the venue accessible. As a result, the garden came up with reduced admission days and offering free admission to those on government assistance. Free passes are also available for checkout through the Fort Worth Public Library.
“It made us really think about the impact of this on all members of the community, and it was a really good thing for us,” said Newman. “We learned a tremendous amount.”
Moving forward, Newman hopes that people begin to view the botanic garden and BRIT as one.
“We have spent the last three and a half years working diligently to make sure that both internally and externally, we are one organization,” said Newman. “We really view ourselves as one team.”
Projects and private-public dollars
Following BRIT’s 2020 takeover, garden leaders decided to revisit the site’s future, determining what it will look like for years to come.
A 20-year master plan, unveiling three phases of improvements at the garden, was approved by Fort Worth City Council members in February 2023. Garden leaders anticipate $265 million will be needed to fully fund improvements, according to previous Report coverage.
Newman says the development and planning of the garden’s future is moving along as planned and receiving support from the community.
Even prior to the Baker Martin Family Garden’s groundbreaking, garden leaders were already thinking ahead regarding other projects, said Newman.
“This is not a one and done opportunity. … We’re constantly looking not only at the present but to the future,” said Newman.
The garden’s previous master plan, prepared in 2010, fell short as it relied heavily on public investment and was light on attracting private dollars to fund the plan’s improvements, Newman told the Report in 2023.
This isn’t the case this time around, Newman said.
In regard to the Baker Martin Family Garden, the city has invested $6 million while garden leaders have raised about $14 million, leaving $5 million left to fully fund the $25 million project.
Garden leaders are working to fundraise the remaining $5 million in the near future and intend to launch a community campaign to introduce more funding opportunities.
The city has played a great role in safeguarding the future of the garden, Newman added. This is largely due to the $17 million the city committed to the garden in deferred maintenance and capital improvements as part of the management agreement signed in 2020.
“It’s a pretty healthy mix of public and private support and that is the recipe as we move forward with all of these projects,” said Newman.
Defining the next decade at the garden
Fort Worth residents can look forward to several amenities following the completion of the Baker Martin Family Garden.
As soon as the family garden is completely constructed, the garden will focus on creating a permanent venue, the proposed Herbaceous Color Garden, to host the in-demand symphony and orchestra concert series. As the family garden is projected to draw more crowds, garden leaders are considering expanding points of entry and mass transit.
City crews are already planning to build new sidewalks and traffic signals along University Drive, along with new medians, curbs, landscaping and pavement striping. Construction is slated to begin in June 2026.
A culinary garden is also in the works to support the garden’s goal of becoming a cultural hub for the community.
The garden’s educational facilities, including its education department and Living Collections, are expected to grow, a plan made largely possible by the merger between BRIT and the garden, according to Byers.
These educational areas of the garden, particularly its Living Collections department, are important to maintain, said Byers, as they showcase native plants and serve as scientific assets to the community.
“We have programmatic potential here that we’ve never had before and that’s really going to leverage the things that we’re doing physically on the ground,” said Byers.
These future additions and the master plan is just the tip of the iceberg for the garden’s next 90 years, said Newman.
“This is an interesting year for us because we are looking back at the 90 years that sort of precede us, but then we’re really excited about what the next 90 years will look like,” said Newman. “As the city continues to grow, this garden will grow, and we will continue to be a place where generations come for some of life’s most memorable events.”
BRIT could also expand in the next year, as city officials are exploring a partnership allowing the institute to take over daily operations at the Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge.
With new projects on the horizon, Newman and Byers aspire to be part of the next class of leaders to initiate growth for the garden for years to come.
“There have been these really forward-looking people in the community throughout the history of the garden that have stepped up and taken the lead and done the things that needed to be done to make the garden grow,” said Byers. “This is our chance to be the next group and do our part as well.”
Residents can be part of the celebration on Dec. 18, when the garden will offer free admission during regular hours.
Nicole Lopez is the environmental reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at nicole.lopez@fortworthreport.org.
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