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Garden Walks
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Explore the Gardens

Enjoy Your Visit — WALK THE GARDEN

Autumn Garden Walk

In every season at the Garden, there is breathtaking beauty throughout our 385 acres of woods, waterways, 23 formal display gardens, and three natural areas. The Garden can be experienced in so many ways at every time of the year. Perhaps the most immediate and gratifying experience is to walk the Garden.

Your autumn walk may be a thrill of color and sound. Find your own pathway — paved, bark-lined, or meandering — and make the Garden your own. Feel free to download Garden guides of individual gardens or the general Garden map before you visit.

There's much to see as summer annuals continue while fall-flowering plants begin. Your first stop should be in the Heritage Garden. Look for the spectacular tropical water lilies in iridescent colors. It's a favorite of photographers.

Take a walk to Evening Island. It is stunning, with massive sweeps of late-season asters, goldenrod, sunflowers, giant hibiscus, and tall ornamental grasses that create waves in the wind. If you've been here in the spring and early summer, come back — you'll see different flowers in bloom.

See the Rose Garden in its autumn glory. It returns to flowering until the first frost around mid-October. Don't miss the English Walled Garden. It offers fall-blooming daises such as aster and helenium, along with unusual bulbs such as the autumn amaryllis and autumn crocus. If you have time, visit the Prairie. If you can't make it, get a sense of the prairie's fall plants by seeing the Native Plant Garden near the Regenstein Center.

Don't miss the raised beds of the Sensory Garden, which bring the texture, color, and fragrance of flowers up close for experiencing. Sweet autumn clematis on the arbor at the top of the Sensory Garden also scents the air and reminds us that summer is coming to an end.

Finally, walk to the Malott Japanese Garden. The wall on Keiunto, the largest island, is decorated with gold cascading chrysanthemums, as would befit a shogun owner. All of the islands of Sansho-En are beautiful at this time of year.

Fall just may be your favorite season for a Garden walk!