The day was established by the American Public Gardens Association, a Pennsylvania non-profit organization that supports, resources and promotes public gardens in North America.
The Atlanta Botanical Garden invited visitors to bring flowers so that they could be put into arrangements for patients and their families at Children's Hospital[2] The Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona, asked visitors to pledge to conserve water, displaying 400 five-gallon water containers that pledgers could adopt.
[3] National spokesperson Paul James visited media gardens, speaking with the public and media about the role public gardens play in the local community.
[5] Created in 2009, in partnership with sponsor, Rain Bird, as a way to increase public awareness of the educational resources public gardens provide to local communities, National Public Gardens Day was adopted by the members of the American Public Gardens Association, to highlight programs such as plant conservation, water conservation, the preservation of green spaces, and home gardening.
National Public Gardens Day has been recognized by various levels of government: