Armed with a new mosaiculture manager, a 20-foot-tall Red Queen and lots of bunnies, the Memphis Botanic Garden is hoping visitors are ready to fall down a rabbit hole. 

Though not a real one, of course. 

In May, the Memphis Botanic Garden will open its first full exhibit since 2019, Alice’s Adventures at the Garden. Initially created for the Atlanta Botanic Garden, the exhibit features living plant statuary inspired by Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” 

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“After everything we’ve been through these past couple of years, we could all use a bit of magic and wonder in our lives,” said Olivia Wall, director of marketing for the Memphis Botanic Garden. 

“Alice’s Adventures” consists of four large installations. There’s Alice herself, of course, on a rotating centerpiece on the Iris Garden fountain. There’s also a large chess board — with 10-foot tall chess pieces — and the aforementioned Red Queen, who weighs approximately 15,000 pounds. 

The living sculptures are an art form called mosaiculture. A Montreal-based company built the characters out of structural steel pieces that are first filled in with soil and covered in fabric. Then, thousands of small, color-coordinated plants are meticulously planted to create the 3D characters.

For the exhibit, the Botanic Garden hired Sennett Holcomb to be its full-time mosaiculture manager, operating a three-person team who will maintain, trim and repair the exhibit seven days a week. 

But Wall said the exhibit is more than just the characters: it “encourages curiosity of the world around us — and through the looking glass.” 

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Over the course of “Alice’s Adventures,” the Botanic Garden will host Wonderland-themed literacy programs and donate more than 10,000 books to local schoolchildren who attend the events. The garden will also host monthly Adventure Saturdays and weekly Twilight Thursdays with variations on the theme. 

There will also be plenty of chances for Memphians to look for, and find, the white rabbit. 

Local and international artists were invited to show rabbit-themed sculptures. Works from nine artists were selected; those artists are Kristi Duckworth, Good Reasons Glass & Angela Wheeler, Amy Hartelust, Thru The Rabbit Hole Designs by Bunny, Liza Jane Richey, Brannen Vick Varner, Erika Visconti, Paige Warner and Henley Wright.

“The exhibition is truly something special,” Wall said, “and I’m so happy we can share that magic and wonder with Memphis by creating this 901-derland for all to enjoy.”

“Alice’s Adventures at the Garden” is open for Memphis Botanic Garden members beginning May 6. It will open for general public guests on May 8 and run through October 2022. The full schedule of events can be found on the Botanic Garden’s website.