Lost Hollow: The Kimbrell Children’s Garden
On October 18, 2014, a long lost land was rediscovered. Nestled in the heart of Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden, this forgotten land has been unearthed between manicured gardens and old forest, offering a journey of fascination and adventure.
Lost Hollow is a magical place for the young and the young at heart. It’s part new garden and part old world, but its places are there for all to explore. Here your imagination is the key to discovering all of its beauty. Pass over the all seeing eye of protection to enter the kingdom of Lost Hollow. Explore the banks of Sunken Pond. Sing like a bird in The Aviary. Survey the land from Moon Keep. Explore the mysterious Fireplace Cave and more.
Designed with the Garden’s founder in mind, Lost Hollow includes three acres developed and a host of places to explore. Traversing meandering paths, guests can explore a variety of destinations with an old world feel. They are centered around Moon Keep (a nod to the fortified structures of castles in the middle ages,) complete with flying buttresses and moat. From there, guests can choose to venture along the Balconette, an elaborate railing along the pond that overlooks much of this garden in the hollow.
From there families can explore Fireplace Cave or a giant 12-foot-tall aviary, both of which are tributes to the legacy of Daniel Stowe. The cave’s entrance is a giant limestone fireplace surround from Stowe’s estate and the aviary, which once housed birds in his garden, is now a spinning play space for children.
The plants of Lost Hollow range from sweeps of Sporbolus, a fine-textured ornamental grass to more familiar black-eyed Susan. Japanese maple, eastern red cedar and the native big leaf magnolia accentuate the landscape and blend with formal gardens on one side and a successional forest on the other.
Lost Hollow was designed by New York Landscape designer W. Gary Smith who is credited with immensely creative gardens all over the country, including the new children’s garden at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Texas and Enchanted Woods at Delaware’s Winterthur Garden. Rodger Builders was the general contractor. Sitework Studios and Matthews Architecture both of Asheville also worked on the project.
Admission to Lost Hollow is included in Garden admission.
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