MINERAL WELLS — Clark Gardens Botanical Park is a hidden beauty that should be better known.
Gravel trails wind through 35 acres of blooms accented by water features, swans and a garden railroad. Nothing was planned on paper, says its executive director, Carol Clark Montgomery, so you might think it is a trifle disorganized. You would be wrong.
In fact, the beds are well-marked, logical extensions of the minds of Max and Billie Clark, the couple who bought the property in 1972 and transformed it gradually over the decades. To fully appreciate its arrangement, you have to view the neat iris beds, with named varieties planted in alphabetical order.
“When they purchased the property, it was such an unattractive piece of neglected land. It wasn’t even really farmland,” Montgomery says.
“We took an old pasture and managed to make it into something halfway presentable,” says Max Clark, Montgomery’s father.
Clark began by planting trees, then he landscaped around them; eventually he expanded landscape beds until more acreage was landscaped than not.
The gardens were more than a simple hobby. “They built it for their own personal pleasure and then, as it grew, it just became something bigger than them,” Montgomery says. The love of gardening and parkland followed. “It was a very accidental dream. It really did just happen.
“There was never an idea of let’s build a big botanical park and donate it to the community,” she says. “It was never like that. It was really built from the love of hard work and gardening.”
Eventually, the Clarks reached a turning point in their decades-long project.
“My parents realized that they had built something bigger than a backyard,” says Montgomery. The couple established the nonprofit Max and Billie Clark Foundation in 1999 and donated 143 acres, including the garden, to it. “Our task is to wean us off their money and be more self-sustaining,” she says.
Billie Clark died in 2011. Her husband, Max, still works 60 to 70 hours a week in the botanical park, much of it on his 85-year-old knees.
“Billie and I put together a stroll garden,” Clark says. “That’s all it is.
“Landscaping and gardening is what you’ve learned from other places,” he says. “We took an old pasture and managed to make it into something halfway presentable.”
Max is being modest. The roses alone are worth the trip; Clark Gardens was a test garden for the Texas AM AgriLife Extension Service’s Earth-Kind rose program. It is also an iris demonstration site, with more than 3,000 irises on display, mostly the tall bearded type. Of course, the irises are particularly stunning during a window of about a month in the spring.
In May, Clark Gardens was awash in pink double, ruffled poppies. “About 15 years ago, my mother threw out a handful of seeds,” says Montgomery. Now, “we have literally hundred of thousands.”
The natural order of things is bluebonnets in bloom first, then poppies, then irises, then roses. In the summer, there are hibiscus shrubs, cannas and Texas natives.
In summer, “I tell people if they’ll just come and plan their visit for the morning, it is very comfortable until about 2,” Montgomery says. “And then about 2, I’d say go home.”
Fall brings asters and relief from the heat. The Christmas season features lights, Santa Claus, hayrides and more. (See clarkgardens.org/visit/bloom-dates.html for monthly listings of blooms.)
The lush surroundings don’t result from gallons of supplemental water in any season; water for irrigation comes from lakes on the property. Max was an early adopter of plants that thrive naturally, without a lot of watering, on his land.
Clark Gardens is an excellent place to add knowledge to your own repertoire by seeing identified flowers, shrubs and trees and absorbing landscaping ideas. Or just to enjoy a quiet day walking the grounds and looking for inspiration.
Montgomery’s informal polls show that only about 20 percent of visitors come from the Dallas area, and rarely from Dallas itself. That’s too bad, because Clark Gardens is a spot that deserves a lot more attention.
Visiting Clark Gardens
Clark Gardens, 567 Maddux Road in Weatherford, is north of U.S. Highway 180, just east of Mineral Wells and close to Mineral Wells State Park. The gardens are open every day. Hours are 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Sunday hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $7 for adults, $5 for seniors and $5 for children ages 5 to 12. Children younger than 5 are free. For more information, see clarkgardens.org.
