Friends of the Garden
To contact the Friends of the Garden or to be added to our email list send an email to news@friendsofthegarden.org
Dr. Paul Redfearn,current member and past president of Friends of the Garden, established this page Botanical Gardens at Close Memorial Park a few years ago. It features many of Dr Redfearn's beautiful photographs of the different gardens and identifies some plants throughout the park. It was updated in 2007 but it is original and will take a couple of minutes to load the photographs, click on a photos to enlarge them. Dr Redfearn helped establish our Native Wildflower Garden that is now on the east side of the park just north of the new Bill Roston Butterfly House. There is a park bench at that location that pays tribute to Dr. Redfearn for being a Springfield community leader. Dr Redfearn, a retired MSU Professor and past Springfield City Mayor from 1978-1981 was involved in many organizations and traveled extensively throughout the world. Many of you know Paul and his wife Alice. They moved last year to Independence, MO. to be closer to family. Our last note from Paul said all was well and they were both volunteers at Powell Gardens our loss is their gain!
As the Botanical Center building develops and the gardens continue to grow I am often asked about our arboretum. Below is the link to the Missouri Conservationist article featuring Close Memorial Park. It reviews this Springfield-Greene County Park's arboretum and other attractions in the April issue published in 2008. It is an excellent well written article by Springfield resident and Missouri Department of Conservation employee Francis Skalicky that goes into considerable detail about our park, if you want to view the electronic copy, click here The Gallery that accompanied the article can be viewed here
Close Memorial Park Arboretum - Missouri Conservationist Article
