Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens in Chatham County, south of Savannah, developed from a former federal plant-introduction station into a fifty-one-acre public garden tied to the University of Georgia. Its origins reach back to the late 1880s, when Mrs. H. B. Miller planted giant Japanese timber bamboo that later drew David Fairchild’s interest. After Barbour Lathrop bought the property in 1919 and leased it to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, plant explorers expanded its collections for decades. Today the site preserves major bamboo, palm, and camellia collections, historic specimen trees, themed gardens, and educational and public programs, while still functioning as a working landscape.