HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Southern Living magazine is touting Garvan Woodland Gardens as the ideal place to watch the leaves turn this fall.

And who can blame them when you see their September issue featuring the garden's waterfalls, Canopy Bridge and E. Fay Jones and Maurice Jennings Pavilion?

Located in Hot Springs, Garvan Woodland Gardens upholds its mission as a "botanical garden that is a resource center for those desiring to improve their aesthetic, cultural and scientific knowledge of plants, gardening, landscape architecture and architecture."

Verna Cook Garvan bequeathed the land that would later become the garden to the University of Arkansas and the School of Architecture in 1985. Seventeen years later the garden is home to more than 128 species of shrubs and wildflowers, 260 varieties of perennials and groundcovers, 111 different types of roses, 260 ornamental trees and 160 varieties of azaleas.

According to Fran Beatty, Landscape Architecture department head, the Asian garden, known as the Garden of the Pine Wind, is one of the garden's most spectacular features. Designed by David Slawson, a nationally recognized expert in Asian art and garden design, this rock and stream garden includes Japanese maples and the Full Moon Bridge.

Garden director Bob Byers is enthusiastic about the season. "In the fall, the woods are alive with color from glowing yellow and orange foliage to gardens with the jewel-like flowers of aster and chrysanthemum." He added, "The brilliant displays of mums and the Japanese maples, dogwoods and oaks are treasures to behold."

Dean Jeff Shannon called the garden "spectacular any time of the year but especially during the fall. I hope people visit the garden to see why Southern Living appreciates it so much."

To learn more about the Garvan Woodland Gardens, visit www.garvangardens.org/.