Help Preserve Juniper Level Botanic Garden for Future Generations
Please contribute to the endowment. Donate Now!
The Avents have made preparations to gift their award-winning Juniper Level Botanic Garden to NC State’s JC Raulston Arboretum. JLBG is currently a world class private botanic garden whose mission includes ex-situ plant conservation, study, education, breeding, propagation, and distribution. Established in 1986, the 28-acre site is also home to Plant Delights Nursery, an international mail order nursery featuring rare, unique, and native perennials. We are transitioning to a full-time non-profit botanic garden. An endowment has been established to preserve Juniper Level Botanic Garden, to avoid a shutdown of all facilities should unforeseen issues with Tony’s health arise. The garden cannot complete the transition until the Operational Endowment is fully funded.
From the time Tony was young, he wandered the woods of Raleigh, NC, observing plants and making selections for his early garden. He began to share this passion with the world when he opened Plant Delights in 1986 and used this home garden as a demonstration site for his wares. Ever since, his garden has evolved into JLBG and been a source of wonder, inspiration, and information. His garden has been instrumental in breaking down some of the great myths of gardening literature and in trialing new plants from around the world that would go on to change the horticultural palette in the U.S. Beside his garden, Tony’s books and lectures have set the tone in the industry, his out-of-the-box thinking has inspired the development of many iconic plants we find in our gardens (or will in the future), and his home has been host to some of the most brilliant horticultural minds. Horticulturists and plant enthusiasts from down the street to around the world look to Tony and JLBG for information, guidance, and interesting new plants. By supporting the endowment, you are ensuring this world-class resource for medical researchers and plant lovers for the foreseeable future.
With funding from this endowment, support for the garden and research staff at Juniper Level Botanic Garden will ensure the future care of Tony’s living legacy. JLBG’s research staff is actively involved in a number of programs including perennial breeding, plant taxonomy, propagation research, plant exploration, and ex-situ conservation. The garden contains several still-unpublished new plant species. The development, maintenance, and research in the gardens are currently funded solely by sales from Plant Delights Nursery, so with retirement in the near future, your help is imperative now to preserve and ensure its future.
JLBG is a 28-acre ex-situ conservation garden with 10+ acres of public displays, including:
- Over 27,000 different plant types, making it one of the Top 5 most diverse collections in the country
- Over 1,000 different Hosta
- Over 1,500 different Trillium (world’s largest collection)
- Over 750 different ferns (one of the world’s top collections)
- Over 650 different Agave (one of the world’s top collections)
- Over 400 different Arisaema
- Over 265 different Epimedium (one of the world’s top collections)
- Over 240 different Solomon’s seal (one of the world’s top collections)
Fully funding the endowment is the only way to operationally preserve Juniper Level Botanic Gardens, the grounds, and its plant collections for this and future generations. Funds in the endowment cannot be used and only the interest will be available for garden operations once the endowment is sustainably funded. The JLBG endowment is set up and administered by The Endowment Fund of NC State University, a tax-deductible 501-C-3.
Fund raising efforts for Juniper Level Botanic Garden at the JC Raulston Arboretum operate under the auspices of The Endowment Fund of NC State University, a 501(c)3 non-profit, tax id 56-6000756. You will receive an official receipt for your donation.
Checks can be made out to:
NC State University and write "JLBG Donation" on the memo line.
Mailing address:
NC Ag Foundation
NCSU Campus Box 7645
Raleigh, NC 27695-7645
Join Tony and Anita in their passion for horticultural research, education, and ex-situ plant conservation and help JLBG continue to be accessible for plant studies for years to come.