CHARLOTTESVILLE (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) — The Botanical Garden of the Piedmont has surpassed $10 million in funds raised for its upcoming botanical garden project, the organization announced on Wednesday.

The current site, which is open to the public as a nature reserve, is the future location of Central Virginia’s first Botanical Garden. The plans for the project were first put in motion when the City of Charlottesville started holding community input sessions in 2009 when it became clear that the construction of John Warner Parkway would mean losing the golf course at McIntire Park.

At those sessions, the idea of a botanical garden rising to the top of the list for what the community wanted as a replacement. The city then selected the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont, a non-profit founded in 2008 to advocate for the building of a botanical garden in McIntire Park, to fundraise, plan and build said park. The organization was officially designated as the city’s partner for the project in Sep. 2013.

The organization began designing the park in 2017 and opened up the site to the public in 2020. Now, it’s preparing to begin construction on the final park next year.

Jill Trischman-Marks, the Garden’s Executive Director, called raising $10 million in funds a major milestone as keeping the garden in the public consciousness has been an obstacle for the organization.

“We need to be relevant and significant in the community because there is so much happening to capture people’s idea and their imagination and then their support,” she said. “So, we’ve been working hard to be able to do all of those things.”

Still, the organization managed to reach this milestone in just five years. Prior to then, the funds raised had gone directly to the organization’s operating costs, but in 2021 a local donor offered $1.5 million if the organization could match it in cash in six months. They did, and since then they’ve fundraised and set aside an additional $7 million. A significant figure, especially since the organization receives no funding from the city outside of their 40-year lease for the land.

“We have to raise all the funds to design, construct and maintain the garden,” Trischman-Marks said.

While the organization will soon begin construction of the long-awaited garden, the current site right now has already made an impact on the community. 

Trischman-Marks said in the past year, they’ve provided over 180 events with 37 distinct programs serving almost 6000 people, a figure that doesn’t include the countless number of other visitors to the site, which is open every day from sunrise to sunset. Currently, the garden is hosting the Botanical Art Festival, which started last Friday and will continue through Sept. 28.

“It’s not the built vision that we have for the garden,” she said, “but it is very much an active and vibrant community gathering area.”

With this new fundraising milestone and the start of construction just around the corner, Trischman-Marks said the staff feels like “momentum for the park is really starting to take off.”

“What we’re finding is that when we go out in the community, we talk to other organizations about how we can be relevant and significant and support the needs of our community that we are only limited by our imagination,” she said.