Tizer Botanic Gardens and Arboretum

History:

Tizer Gardens began in 1997 when Richard Krott and Belva Lotzer fell in love with and purchased a small piece of property on Tizer Lake Road, in Jefferson City. The couple began gardening in their backyard paradise, which sits in the heart of the Elkhorn Mountains and straddles Prickly Pear Creek. Gardening provided stress relief and a sort of therapy for Richard as he recovered from cancer.

Enticed by Mother Nature to spend as much time outside as possible, they began developing gardens along the creek and attacking large swaths of noxious weeds and replacing them with Cosmos. Over time they acquired an additional 6 acres of land and have developed about 4 acres of that to date.

By the spring of 2000, people had begun to notice the flowers in the couple's garden and the Krott's were finding visitors in their garden at all hours of the day and night. That year they decided to open the gardens on weekends for visitors. They went from 200 hundred visitors that first year — to 2000 visitors the next year and last year they welcomed over 15,000 visitors to their gardens.