Celebrate!

The Details

We will celebrate the completion of several exciting new additions to our Silva Creek Botanical Garden on Sunday, October 12, 2025, from 2:00 to 4:00 PM at the intersection of State and Virginia Streets in Silver City. The family-friendly events include a puppet show, brief talks, and hands-on activities in botanical art, science, and archaeology. Visitors will have the opportunity to talk to our gardeners in each of the new areas, and books and outdoor sculptures will be available for sale.

The Garden is a project of the Gila Native Plant Society (GNPS) and the Town of Silver City. GNPS volunteers have been working for many years to turn a lot no longer needed by the Town into a showcase for native plants. In 2023, we completed the Master Plan and began fundraising for its implementation. Late that year, the Gila Native Plant Society received a Trails+ grant from the New Mexico Department of Outdoor Recreation, which significantly contributed towards funding the first phase of garden improvements. The rest has been accomplished through the generosity of our donors and innumerable volunteer hours implementing and then maintaining the new garden areas.

Elements include a welcoming new main entrance with reworked pathways, interpretive signage, and a habitat thicket that showcases ways to attract and keep wildlife in your garden. There are new plantings in the desert garden next to the main entrance and the front yard garden just beyond it. The butterfly garden, dedicated to three local young people who died untimely deaths, demonstrates how to attract butterflies.

Visitors can check out the new wall and gorgeous murals surrounding the Garden’s iconic water tank. The Youth Mural Program has done an extraordinary job of depicting the garden’s three themes: the relationship between native plants and wildlife, climate, and people of the region. Donors to the garden’s capital campaign and volunteers to GNPS, including those involved in the garden, will be honored with beautiful tile flowers.

Everyone is welcome to join the celebration on Sunday afternoon, October 12th, from 2:00 to 4:00 pm. Silva Creek Botanical Garden is located on Virginia Street, two blocks north of Route 180. Please leave pets at home for this event, except service animals.