The St. George Village Botanical Garden (16 acres) is a botanical garden with arboretum located at 127 Estate St. George, Frederiksted, Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. It is open daily except Christmas; an admission fee is charged.
History
The garden is set in and around the restored buildings and ruins of a 19th-century Danish sugarcane plantation. It contains over 1500 native and exotic species and varieties, including bromeliads, cactus and succulents, a conservation garden, a dry palmetum, heritage gardens, orchids, ornamental ferns, native arboretum (about 50 species), naturalized forest, rainforest (irrigated), and sansevieria collection.
It also contains a herbarium (5000 specimens) and a library of 500 volumes, housed in a post-emancipation workers' cottage restored in the early 1980s.
Collections
The 16 acres gardens house the most complete collection of plants in the Virgin Islands. The garden mission is to conserve the native plant species of St. Croix, as well as threatened species from other Caribbean islands that adapt to local environmental conditions. In addition, the garden preserves the ethno-botanical history of St. Croix, through living exhibits, graphics, and structural displays. Through its gardens and collections, it is an educational center for a better understanding, not only of the island botanical heritage, but also of the potential horticultural for contemporary gardening in the Virgin Islands.