Iowa Gardens

 Arie den Boer Arboretum: Water Works Park, 408 Fleur Drive, Des Moines, IA 50321

 (515)283-8700.

The Arboretum proudly displays one of the world's largest collections of flowering crab apple trees with 300 varieties. The collection grows through a donor program promoting planting of memorial trees.

 Bellevue Butterfly Garden: South Bluff Nature Center at Bellevue State Park, Highway 52 South, Bellevue, IA  (563)872-4019.

Garden designed specifically to attract butterflies by providing nectar plants for adults and host plants for caterpillars. Some 60 species of butterflies expected each year. Adjacent to a three-acre prairie preserve and wildlife food plots, these gardens are also used as a teaching and research resource.

 Better Homes and Gardens Test Garden: Between Grand and Locust Streets, Des

 Moines, IA (515)284-3994.

This test garden for Better Homes and Gardens magazine offers a variety of plants and display gardens, including a dwarf conifer garden, a fragrant path, a shade garden, a clay garden, a rock garden, and an ornamental grass garden. Employees are available to answer questions. Open hours are limited.

 Bickelhaupt Arboretum: 340 S. 14th Street, Clinton, IA 52732-5432  (563)242-4771.

The 13 acre Arboretum, started in 1970 by Frances and Robert Bickelhaupt on the grounds surrounding their home, displays more than 1,500 plants, including trees, shrubs, flowering perennials and wildflowers. Special collections include dwarf and rare conifers, lilacs, a medicinal plant display, and a conservatory showcasing house plants.

 Brucemore: 2160 Linden Drive SE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52403 (319)362-7375.

A National Trust Historic Site, Brucemore is a Queen Anne style mansion situated on a 26-acre parklike estate. The 1 acre formal garden, more in the style of a cottage garden, showcases more than 400 roses complemented by flowering perennials.

 Buxton Park Arboretum: N. Buxton and W. Girard, Indianola, IA (515)961-9420.

Enjoy the Victorian gazebo and lighting as you take a tour through formal perennial and rose gardens. Interpretive tree tour.

 Cedar Valley Arboretum and Botanic Gardens: Hawkeye Community College, Hess and

 Orange Road, P.O. Box 1833, Waterloo, IA 50701 (319)236-0455.

The 75 acre site, begun in 1996 with the planting of approximately 140 native trees and shrubs in the sesquicentennial forest section, strives to create a major botanical collection of native and exotic plant materials with special emphasis on those that thrive and flourish in the Cedar Valley region.

Clare & Miles Mills Rose Garden, Greenwood Park: 4802 Grand Avenue at 49th Street (Behind the Art Center), Des Moines, IA 50310 (515) 237-1386.

 Crapo Park: Great River Road, Burlington, IA (319)753-8110.

The 85 acre 100 year old park includes an arboretum with over 200 varieties of trees and shrubs and botanical gardens of annuals and perennials.

 Des Moines Botanical Center:  909 East River Drive, Des Moines, IA 50316 (515)242-2934.

The riverside Botanical Center displays nearly 1,000 different species and cultivars of tropical, subtropical, and arid region plants in an 80-foot-tall and 150-foot-wide Plexiglas dome. Special collections include cacti and succulents, bonsai, and orchids (over 200 species). The 14 acre center site's outdoor displays feature annuals and perennials, a cottage garden, a butterfly garden and an herb garden.

 Dubuque Arboretum and Botanical Garden:  Marshall Park, 3800 Arboretum Drive,

 Dubuque, IA 52001 (319)556-2100.

375 volunteers maintain this award-winning garden with over 800 roses (hybrid teas, miniature, shrub, and old garden roses) and over 13,000 hostas (700 varieties), as well as special collections of irises, peonies, lilies and daylilies, dahlias, and dwarf conifers. Special gardens include a Rose Garden, a Knot Garden, an Herb Garden, and a Japanese Garden. A Greenhouse and displays of prairie wildflowers and grasses complete the site.

 Forest Park Museum: 1477 K Avenue, Perry, IA 50220 (515)465-3577.

The Arboretum features a collection of trees from all parts of the country.

 Frontier Organic Research Farm Botanical Garden:  3021 78th Street, Norway, IA 52318

 (319)227-7966.

A fascinating 1 acre Botanical Garden showcases 200 botanical species in 17 medicinal herb beds patterned in the shape of a leaf.  Theme-based beds and miniature gardens include a bee garden, a yin-yang garden, a spiral garden, an herb wheel, a moonlight garden, a potager garden, and a male/female material medica bed.  An elderberry grove surrounding the garden serves as a natural windbreak.

 Garden of the Men's Garden Clubs of America: Johnston, IA 50131 (515)278-0295.

 Heritage Rose Garden: Main Street between 1st and 2nd, Gray, IA 50110 (712)563-3066.

A country style garden features an extensive collection of Old Garden and Canadian Heritage roses.

 Iowa Arboretum:  1875 Peach Avenue, Madrid, IA 50156 (515)795-3216.

The 378 acre arboretum, a "Library of Living Plants" containing forest, prairie, and meadow areas, offers 3 self-guided woodland trails through 40 cultivated acres displaying hundreds of species of trees and shrubs, plus herbs, roses, ornamental grasses, Siberian irises, daylilies, and hostas.

 Johnson Rose Garden 306 W. Lincolnway Street, Jefferson, IA 50129 (515)386-4759.

 Lilac Arboretum and Children's Forest: Ewing Park, 1900 McKinley Avenue (at Indianola),

 Des Moines, IA.

This arboretum features more than 1,400 fragrant lilacs of 120 varieties.

 Living History Farms: 2600 NW 111th Street, Urbandale, IA 50322 (515)278-5286 or

 (515)278-2400.

A dozen garden plots scattered throughout this living history museum all were developed from historically accurate seeds, some going back more than 300 years. Gardens include a Native American garden, vegetable gardens, herb/flower gardens, a cutting garden, a Victorian annual garden, a Victorian perennial garden, a wildflower garden, a prairie restoration trail and more than 40 acres of crop land.

 Municipal Rose Garden: Community Center, 2204 Grant Street, Bettendorf, IA 52722 (563)344-4112.

The Community Center is located at Sunny Crest Park, which features a gazebo and garden.

 Muscatine Art Center: 1314 Mulberry Avenue, Muscatine, IA 52761 (319)263-8282.

A 1908 Edwardian Mansion, the Laura Musser Museum, features a Japanese Garden. While you're in Muscatine, visit the Pearl Button Museum.

 Noelridge Park: 4900 Council Street NE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52403 (319)398-0247

 (319)398-5101.

This large multi-facility public park contains an All-America Selections Display Garden, test gardens and greenhouses.

 Pella Historical Village and Scholte Gardens: 507 Franklin Street, Pella, IA 50219

 (515)628-4311.

This museum village celebrates its Dutch heritage with flower gardens, architectural models and antique Dutch heirlooms brought to Pella by immigrants. Tulips (28,000!), annuals, perennials and roses ornament the village which includes the Scholte Gardens at the home of its founder and a Statuary Garden dedicated by Princess Margriet of The Netherlands.

 Prairie Pedlar: 1677 270th Street, Odebolt, IA 51458 (712)668-4840.

This retail garden store and barn showcases over fifty display gardens arranged into theme beds plus a geenhouse filled with everlasting annuals, hard-to-find perennials, scented geraniums, and herbs.

 Rabbit Hollow Gardens: 2285 290th Street, Garner, IA (641)927-4448.

An acre of perennial and herb gardens includes a Moon Garden, a Wild Flower Garden, an Herb Garden, and a Butterfly Garden, as well as a gift shop.

 Reiman Gardens : Iowa State University, 1407 Elwood Drive, South of Cyclone Stadium,

 Ames, IA 50011 (515)294-2710 or (800)262-2224.

Constructed in 1995, this 14 acre garden already contains annual beds, perennial beds, an herb garden, several Rose Gardens, a Formal Garden, a Campanile Garden, displays of ornamental and prairie plants, a Food Garden, statuary and arbors, and much more.

 Riverside Gardens: Third Street and US Highway 151, Monticello, IA (319)465-5626.

The lovely 37 gardens feature a wide variety of annuals, perennials and hosta, and a wetland nature trail.

 Shakespeare Garden: (Scroll down to Ellis Park), Ellis Park, 2000 Ellis Boulevard NW,

 Cedar Rapids, IA 52405 (319)398-0247.

A formal garden showcasing specific plants mentioned in Shakespeare's writings.

 Stampe Lilac Garden: Duck Creek Park, 3300 East Locust Street, Davenport, IA

(563) 326-7812.

An extensive collection of lilacs is set off by spring flowering bulbs, peonies and mid-summer blooming perennials and annuals.

 State Center Rose Garden: 300 Third Street SE, State Center, IA 50247 (515)482-2559.

State Center, the Rose Capital of Iowa, is home to this rose garden featuring old and new rose varieties and a gazebo.

 Teaching and Research Greenhouse: University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA 50613

 (319)273-2247.

The greenhouse complex houses plants from many different ecotypes, including 250 tropical plants, an extensive collection of arid climate plants, and the 1,200 square foot Aquatic Learning Center (native and tropical plants, fish, mosses and ferns, a hydroponic display, a large stone waterfall, a spillway, a fast moving stream, a peat bog, and more. Take the virtual tour of this attractive facility at its website.

 Terrace Hill Historic Site: 2300 Grand Avenue, Des Moines, IA 50312 (515)281-3604.

A Victorian mansion, built by Iowa's first millionaire, has been restored to the late 1800s period and showcases a re-created Victorian formal garden.

 Union Park Floral Garden: 1801 Pennsylvania Avenue (North of Lutheran Hospital), Des

 Moines, IA

This park features seasonal floral displays thousands of annuals.

 Vander Veer Park Conservatory:  214-5 W. Central Park Avenue, Davenport, IA 52803

 (563) 326-7812.

The site features a formal All-America Selections accredited Rose Garden with 188 roses of 145 varieties, a hosta garden and annual and perennial beds.

 Weed Park Memorial Rose Garden: Park Drive, Muscatine, IA 52761, (563) 263-0241.

This memorial rose garden is accredited by the All America Rose Selections organization.