Wing Haven Gardens and Bird Sanctuary is a garden and habitat for birds and wildlife located in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

. It includes the Elizabeth Lawrence House & Garden, which is the site of a garden writer’s living laboratory. The site also includes the SEED Wildlife & Children’s Gardens, which provides hands-on exploratory learning and a natural habitat for local wildlife.

History

Wing Haven Gardens & Bird Sanctuary was established in 1927 by Elizabeth and Edwin Clarkson. In 1971, the couple donated the garden and house to the Wing Haven Foundation. The Clarksons remained in the home until 1988. Wing Haven's original Clarkson Garden is the Charlotte area's only designated garden and bird sanctuary listed as a local historic landmark by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmark Commission, certified as Wildlife Habitat by the

National Wildlife Federation The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) is the United States' largest private, nonprofit conservation education and advocacy organization, with over six million members and supporters, and 51 state and territorial affiliated organizations (includin ...

, and named an eBird hotspot by the

Cornell Lab of Ornithology The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a member-supported unit of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, which studies birds and other wildlife. It is housed in the Imogene Powers Johnson Center for Birds and Biodiversity in Sapsucker Woods Sanctuar ...

and the National Audubon Society. There have been over 150 species of birds sighted at the property. In 2008, Wing Haven purchased the Elizabeth Lawrence House & Garden at 348 Ridgewood Avenue. Noted author and landscape architect Elizabeth Lawrence lived in the home when she moved to Charlotte. The house and garden is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

, in the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Gardens, and as one of only 15 Preservation Partner Gardens of the Garden Conservancy. In 2018, Wing Haven added the Student Environmental Education and Discovery (SEED) Wildlife Garden.

The Grounds

The garden plan for Wing Haven Garden & Bird Sanctuary resembles a

Cross of Lorraine The Cross of Lorraine (french: Croix de Lorraine, link=no), known as the Cross of Anjou in the 16th century, is a heraldic two-barred cross, consisting of a vertical line crossed by two shorter horizontal bars. In most renditions, the horizon ...

with its long path crossed by two shorter, perpendicular paths, and the house sited between the shorter paths. It contains a number of pools, fountains and variety of trees, shrubs, and flowers. The garden also contains an English

sundial A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a flat ...

from 1705, various

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

pieces, and dozens of plaques. One plaque features a poem by Japanese pacifist and reformer

Toyohiko Kagawa was a Japanese Protestant Christian pacifist, Christian reformer, and labour activist. Kagawa wrote, spoke, and worked at length on ways to employ Christian principles in the ordering of society and in cooperatives. His vocation to help the ...

. The garden also features a statue of

Saint Fiacre Saint Fiacre ( ga, Fiachra, la, Fiacrius) is the name of three different Irish saints, the most famous of which is Saint Fiacre of Breuil (c. AD 600 – 18 August 670), the Catholic priest, abbot, hermit, and gardener of the seventh century ...

, patron saint of gardeners.

Trees

Wing Haven harbors several champion trees. In 2013, a Tulip Poplar (

Liriodendron tulipifera ''Liriodendron tulipifera''—known as the tulip tree, American tulip tree, tulipwood, tuliptree, tulip poplar, whitewood, fiddletree, and yellow-poplar—is the North American representative of the two-species genus ''Liriodendron'' (the other ...

) at a diameter of 67 in., height of 130 ft. and a spread of 50 ft. became a Treasure Tree and Jewel of the Queen's Crown as awarded by the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service, who started the formal Treasure Tree program in Mecklenburg County. The Elizabeth Lawrence Garden's Japanese Stewartia (

Stewartia pseudocamellia ''Stewartia pseudocamellia'', also known as Korean stewartia, Japanese stewartia, or deciduous camellia, is a species of flowering plant in the family Theaceae, native to Japan (southern Honshū, Kyūshū, Shikoku) and Korea. Names It is called ...

) is one of the original trees of the Treasure Tree Program and is the largest recorded Japanese Stewartia in Mecklenburg County. In 2000, Wing Haven Garden & Bird Sanctuary's Pin Chastetree (

Vitex agnus-castus ''Vitex agnus-castus'', also called vitex, chaste tree (or chastetree), chasteberry, Abraham's balm, lilac chastetree, or monk's pepper, is a native of the Mediterranean region. It is one of the few temperate-zone species of '' Vitex'', which is ...

) was nominated as the nation's largest specimen of its species growing in the United States. It was surpassed in 2009 by a specimen in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

References

External links

Wing Haven
{{Bird Sanctuaries Bird sanctuaries of the United States Botanical gardens in North Carolina