By Blake Ells
Dr. Thomas G. Amason Jr. is a gardener.
Well, Amason is a lot of things. He served in the Navy, he’s a pediatrician, he’s a philanthropist and he’s a Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens trustee who served as chairman of the board of directors in 2008-2010.
He was a gardener when he was 12 years old and he’s a gardener in semi-retirement. But “gardener” isn’t a line you’ll see on his resume.
“There’s always been a dispute about me,” Tommy Amason joked. “He’s a doctor of children, but is he a better doctor of gardens?”
That might be a matter for debate, but people who work with The Gardens have cast their vote. Amason and his wife, Yates, are being recognized for their dedication to The Gardens as this year’s Antiques at The Gardens Honorees.
Antiques at The Gardens, a fundraiser to support educational programs at The Gardens, takes place Oct. 6-8, with a black-tie gala kicking off the weekend on Oct. 5.
The couple has been involved with The Gardens for about 40 years. They moved around for several years after they first got married. But Tommy Amason, a native of Ozark, and his wife, a native of Mountain Brook, wanted to return home to begin a family.
“And you can’t be a gardener in a 12th story apartment in New York City,” Yates Amason said.
She got involved at The Gardens soon after their move through volunteer work with the Junior League of Birmingham. Her fundraising efforts with the league provided docents for some of the early educational programming at The Gardens. She also worked the first plant sale ever held at The Gardens; the sprawling event is now held off-site to accommodate the large plant selection.
“Me and Cindy Bibb and Pam Rediker were the only three cashiers working the entire thing,” Yates Amason said.
The Amasons have owned two homes that have been featured on past Glorious Gardens tours. Yates Amason visits The Gardens several times a week and draws inspiration for her own garden.
“I love walking there because I love seeing how things are doing,” she said. “I saw the vinca (vines) and how they’re all around the clock recently and took that idea to my own garden.”
Donations by the Amasons and other Birmingham-area families help Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens fulfill the mission statement, which Tommy Amason helped create about a decade ago.
At the heart of the mission is education. In the past decade, The Gardens has provided free science lessons to 10,000 schoolchildren each year. The flagship program is Discovery Field Trips, which offers a variety of ways to explore. Yates Amason said her favorite is the Dr. George Washington Carver field trip, which allows children to see how cotton and peanuts are grown.
“This place is educational,” Tommy Amason said. “It’s not just a pretty place. When we first planned out the mission, we wanted to establish that this was a place for education.”
The Gardens’ blooms may inspire the Amasons’ own garden, but their passion is for The Gardens role as a hands-on educational space for children.
“The Gardens is for everybody,” Yates Amason said. “It enriches the City of Birmingham. Sometimes, I think people think that it’s just a beautiful spot for the people of the Mountain Brook community, but when I’m walking at The Gardens, I see people come from all over. Young people, old people, every culture and every race. And donations to The Gardens go directly to education, which offers programming all year long.”
Visit bbgardens.org/antiques for updated information about Antiques at The Gardens’ Red Diamond Lecture and other special events and book signings, Tastemakers and Dealers.
Blake Ells is public relations coordinator with the Birmingham Botanical Gardens.