News Release
For Immediate Release — December 30, 2008
Holiday Express at the UT Gardens Adds New Year’s Day
Showing to Final Weekend
Garden Railroad Exhibit Features Miniature World of Wonder
Knoxville, Tenn. – An additional showing of the Holiday Express at the UT Gardens will give visitors more time to see the exhibit during its final weekend. The Holiday Express will now be open 1-6 p.m. Thursday, New Year’s Day. It will also be open during the hours of 1-9 p.m. Friday, January 2; 1-9 p.m. Saturday, January 3, and during the final showing 1-6 p.m. Sunday, January 4.
Ten garden-scale model trains, thousands of lights and a miniature landscape featuring rivers, waterfalls and more than 100 buildings decorated for the holidays have already delighted thousands of visitors young and old at this first-ever event for the UT Gardens, a part of the UT Institute of Agriculture.
The hand-crafted display is located on the Friendship Plaza at the entrance to the UT Gardens off Neyland Drive. Large group viewings are available and interested parties should call 865-584-7666. Cost is $5 per person; children under 4 are admitted free.
One of the community’s finest treasures, the UT Gardens feature more than 1,000 woody plants under long-term observation and 2,000 varieties of herbaceous plants evaluated annually. The UT Gardens function as an outdoor laboratory and teaching and research facility while also serving as public gardens, sharing their beauty with over 50,000 visitors per year. Established in 1983 by the UT Institute of Agriculture Department of Plant Sciences, the gardens are recognized as one of only 34 official All American Selections (AAS) test sites in the United States.
The Holiday Express, which has been open since Thanksgiving, was created by Mark Fuhrman, a local train enthusiast and owner of Mark Fuhrman Complete Landscape Services. Fuhrman, who has been a long-standing participant of the Dogwood Arts Festival’s Home and Garden Show, partnered with the UT Institute of Agriculture and UT Gardens to bring his wonderland to a larger audience during this special time of the year. Fuhrman customizes each train car and building by hand with a passion and care that has resulted in one of the largest train collections in East Tennessee.
The UT Gardens is located just off Neyland Drive behind the UT Veterinary Hospital on the UT Institute of Agriculture campus. From I-40 take Exit 386B onto Hwy 129 (Alcoa Highway toward the airport). From Highway 129 take the exit for Highway 158 (Neyland Drive). Turn left at end of exit ramp. Turn left onto Joe Johnson Drive, and right at the next light onto Chapman Drive. Visitor parking is directly across from the entrance to the UT Gardens.
The Holiday Express is sponsored by the Knoxville News Sentinel and WBIR. For more information, click on http://utgardens.tennessee.edu or call 865-974-7141.
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Contact:
Lorna Norwood, (865) 974-7141