Growing the Gardens

The Taylor Conservatory Foundation is creating a botanical garden in Taylor, MI. Our goals are to:

• Provide a unique horticultural experience for public enjoyment and improve quality of life for those living and visiting the Detroit area.

• Strengthen our community through collaboration with regional partners to create a vibrant, energizing place to create, exhibit and perform.

Conservatory History. The Conservatory is a sculptural interpretation of the historic Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory, built in 1904 for the city of Detroit by renowned architect Albert Kahn. A lover of classical architecuture, Kahn modeled the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory after Monticello, the home of our 3rd U.S. president, Thomas Jefferson. 

DTE Energy commissioned and built this replica for Michigan’s largest flower show, the DTE Energy International Bloomfest, in 1999. In 2004, DTE Energy generously donated the structure to the City of Taylor for this project. This beautiful open-air replica is a correct-to-scale model of the famous conservatory, and serves as the unique gateway to our gardens.  The handcrafted aluminum structure is more than 90 feet long, 24 feet wide and 28 feet tall. It weighs 3 tons. The conservatory does not have glass panes, but serves as the grand and elegant entrance to the botanical gardens, and to display the 4-season educational displays of annuals and perennials for public enjoyment.

After a late season groundbreaking ceremony in 2006, construction began  in earnest in 2007.  As of 2009, we have installed the conservatory, 2600 sq. ft. terrace, public parking facilities, front garden entrance and beds, knot gardens, crushed granite pathways with mosiac inlays, surrounded by a formal hedge of 8 foot Thuga plicata 'Atrovirens' arborvitaes.