Norfolk Botanical Garden was proposed by Frederic Heutte, a horticulturalist, and Thomas P. Thompson, Norfolk City Manager 1935-1938. They secured seventy-five acres of high, wooded ground and seventy-five acres of the Little Creek Reservoir and work began in 1938 on making an Azalea Garden. As the work extended the name was changed to Norfolk Municipal Gardens and then to Norfolk Botanical Garden. It now has a variety of theme gardens: a Japanese Garden, a Desert Plants Garden, a Colonial Garden and a Rose Garden, the Bristow Butterfly Garden, the Sarah Lee Baker Perennial Garden, the Virginia Native Plant Garden and the Four Seasons Garden. The World of Wonders Children's Adventure Garden opened in September 2006. It is a 3 acre interactive garden with a focus on education as well as entertainment.
