The Friday before Mother’s Day has been named National Public Gardens Day, which creates a wonderful opportunity to visit and celebrate the many public gardens in Iowa. Public parks like the Dubuque Arboretum and Botanical Gardens, Reiman Gardens in Ames, and the Bickelhaupt Arboretum in Clinton are just some of many across the state. Assistant Director of Reiman Gardens, Aaron Steil, says that what sets these organizations apart from private counterparts is their dedication to educating the public about beautification and conservation of plant ecosystems.
Steil says that visiting public gardens can also give inspiration to people who might want to bring these plants and flowers into their own landscape.
“One of the things that many of these places do is simply label plants. Having plants labeled so folks know what they [are] so they can go out and look for them because this is also a great weekend to go shopping for plants. Many of these organizations focus on plants that are well adapted to places like Iowa.”
On this Talk of Iowa, Charity Nebbe is joined by Steil, DNR District Forester, Mark Vitosh, and Associate Professor of Horticulture at Iowa State University, Cindy Haynes. They discuss their favorite public gardens in Iowa and take questions from listeners.
