The Whiteside Garden is owned and operated by the Douglas-Hart Foundation in collaboration with Eastern Illinois University in Coles County, Illinois. The Douglas-Hart Foundation is a private operating foundation, established in 1963 by the late Helen Douglas-Hart. The Foundation maintains three unique properties in Coles County: Friendship Garden, the Douglas-Hart Nature Center, and The Whiteside Garden.

The living collections of The Whiteside Garden comprise diverse and valuable collections from all over the world. This private collection is that of the late Dr. Wesley Whiteside, a professor at EIU until his passing in 2015. Since 2018, the Douglas-Hart Foundation has cared over this unique botanical garden collection and opened it to the public in 2021 as a botanical garden and arboretum. Its main objective is to offer a recreational venue to the community while promoting education in the garden.

 Anyone who wishes to access the living collection, collect propagules, or other requests must be sent using the online request form. All requests must be approved by the Horticulturalist Director. The Douglas-Hart Foundation reserves the right to deny requests based on limited amounts of propagation material, commercial availability, species that fall under other memoranda of understanding with other parties, for our own curatorial reasons, etc.  Due to regulations by the United States Department of Agriculture, foreign requests are not permitted at this time. Donations are requested for propagule requests to offset staff time, resources, shipping, etc.