The 17-acre wooded site was acquired by the Dixons in 1939 and construction of their home followed.  Plans for the house and gardens began simultaneously as the house was sited for future garden vistas.  At the time, Margaret and Hugo Dixon enlisted the aid of his sister, Hope Crutchfield, who was a landscape designer.  Their goal was to create an American-style garden reminiscent of English landscape parks and French and Italian garden styles. In 1976, the cutting gardens were established to provide flowers for the arrangements in the residence and the galleries. Mrs. Dixon always had fresh flowers in her home and the Dixon Gallery and Gardens' long partenership with The Memphis Garden Club has continued this tradition.

In 1998, a horticultural complex opened at the Dixon that includes a library, meeting space, potting hub, greenhouses, and a Victorian glass conservatory.

The Dixon was certified as a level 2 Arboretum in October 2006, having 60 identified and labeled trees and a self-guided tour map.  

Garden Layout 

The gardens were carefully carved out of native Tennessee woodlands, with consideration given to the fine old trees, vistas, arrangement and sequence of garden space.  Reflecting Mr. Dixon's English heritage, the gardens were landscaped in the manner of an English park with open vistas adjacent to smaller, intimate formal spaces.

The main sections of the garden include the South Lawn, the  Formal Gardens, the Cutting Garden, and the Woodland Gardens.  Additionally, sculpture, ranging from 18th century to modern, provide further visual interest in the Dixon gardens.

The gardens were designed to take advantage of the fine tree specimens and to preserve the integrity of the woodlands. Pathways linking different parts of the garden together reveal only a portion of the garden at any one time.  The tree canopy, comprised mainly of oaks and hickories, became the framework for the garden design based upon a formal cross-axis plan.

Arboretum Tour

This cross-axis plan was used to create many varied garden rooms. Each axis ended in a view of either one of the majestic trees, a statue, or the house. The native oak / hickory forest was kept as canopy, background, and the bones of the garden. The Dixons added the understory layer dogwoods, azaleas, hemlocks and boxwood. The hemlocks were used as evergreen screens and provide a background for the deciduous trees. The boxwood were used in formal areas as hedges and to anchor corners. The dogwoods and azalea provide the spring color for which the Dixon is so well known.

In order to bring light under some of the denser trees, they have been limbed up, some have been removed, and still more die each year due to age and weather. For approximately the last 10 years, we at the Dixon have been adding back to this canopy level and expanding the types of trees on the property. So far, have added white oaks, beech, and maples in hopes that, when the time comes, they will be the next generation of canopy trees needed to maintain our shade garden.

Hugo Dixon left to his community his home and a landscaped garden created in an urban forest. Today the Dixon strives to maintain that same urban forest while presenting a garden for everyone's enjoyment.