MPRB Gardens: Your guide to a bloom-tastic season

Many gardeners survive winter by dreaming of and planning for the season to come – including those on horticulture team at the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB).

Last winter (the one that wasn’t), they put together a “bucket list” of gardens to visit in the Minneapolis park system, all season long. Make sure to fit these sweet spots into your plans over the coming five, maybe six months!

Note: Just like the parks, all MPRB gardens are free to enter and enjoy.

April – May

Quick! Head to Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary for a veritable wonderland
of spring ephemerals. True to their genre, these woodland flowers are fleeting – so weekly visits are worth it.
Above: Trout lily in bloom during a previous season. (Location: 1 Theodore Wirth Parkway)

May & Mid-Summer Another wonderland is emerges in May with a bold spring show at the Annual-Perennial Garden in Lyndale Park. This year’s theme is a “Gnomeapolis” takeover, as the legendary dwarfish creatures tiptoe through the tulips and get up to all kinds of mischief. After  peaking in mid-May, another show follows with a summer theme and is at its best in August. All season long, you’ll find rotating blooms and changing colors in both the annual display beds and the borders dedicated to perennials. (West 42nd St. & Fremont Ave. S.)

May

Take home a spring bouquet from the recently established Cut Flower Garden at Sumner Field Park.

Look for the raised beds adjacent to the restroom building and the community garden. Bring scissors and a jar –
and come back later for summer blooms, which are optimal in late July through September.

(901 Aldrich Avenue North)

Late May – Early June A rainbow of bearded iris peaks at the Northeast Municipal Iris Garden. This lovely spot was created in 2017 by the Iris Society of Minnesota, and it’s easily accessible, tucked into the parking lot for Columbia Golf Club. Even better, it thrives all season thanks to ongoing care from volunteers. (3300 Central Avenue Northeast)

Speaking of volunteers …

Thousands of people help keep MPRB gardens all over the city looking gorgeous. Consider joining them!

Below are just two of many opportunities to spend time outside, meet new people and be a steward of a special place.
No experience necessary, we promise!

Find more information at

minneapolisparks.org/garden_volunteers

Now, back to the show!

May – September

Downtown, you’ll find a riot of colors, textures, scents and sounds in the gardens bordering the fountain and
plaza at Gateway Park. The focus here is on hardy plants selected to offer color and attract pollinators all
season long, so grab a book, pack a lunch, and wile away a summer day!

(Hennepin Ave. & Second St.)

June – September and October

The recreation center at Lake Hiawatha Park is surrounded by gorgeous shrubs, grasses and perennials –
but find your way to the building’s lake side for garden magic: The entrancing and evolving combinations of
blooms, foliage, colors and forms are the perfect backdrop for a lazy afternoon with a lake view.

(E. 44th St. & 27th Ave. S.)

August – September

If you’ve never visited Longfellow Gardens in Minnehaha Regional Park, make 2024 your year.
It’s a showstopper in late summer, when it’s loaded with color, annual flowers are at their peak, and
hummingbirds and monarch butterflies stop in before journeying south. A bonus is its feeling of seclusion,
tucked away on the “lid” of parkland the covers Highway 55.
(3933 E Minnehaha Parkway, west of S. Minnehaha Drive)

Late summer

Arrayed around a spherical sculpture by local artist Robert Smart, the garden beds at Sheridan Memorial Park
feature a host of native flowers, with a sunken design so that the plants are irrigated with stormwater.

Joe Pye Weed, Black-eyed Susans, and Purple Coneflower peak from late August through September, along with
a surge of Monarch butterflies and other pollinators feeding. What better place to create memories to carry you
through the coming winter?

(1300 Water St. NE)

Photo credits and MPRB gardens on Instagram

• Trout lillies (top image) courtesy staff who care for Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary.
  Follow @ebwg on Instagram for updates on what’s in bloom all season, plus Garden goings-on and more.
• All other images courtesy MPRB’s horticulture team, which cares for gardens throughout the park system.
  Follow @mplsgardens on Instagram for regular doses of eye candy from MPRB gardens and other places across Minneapolis parks – plus news, updates, advice, ideas and more.