Cheyenne Botanic
Gardens
Cheyenne,
Wyoming
August 2010
I have to admit that I didn’t
have high expectations of this garden. We had a free
afternoon while we were in Denver so I talked my wife into
making the drive north, but throughout the long drive I
kept telling her not to expect too much. After all,
Cheyenne is a really small city with a tough climate. But a
garden’s a garden and none are bad so I assured her the
trip would be worthwhile. I was right. The garden was a
very pleasant surprise.
The garden opened in 1977 on nine acres within a large city
park. Entering from the parking lot, the first thing you
see is the conservatory. The structure is not very
impressive. A typical commercial greenhouse in appearance
but built with sustainability in mind. The solar panels on
the roof and other energy conserving features make it
interesting. It was closed during our visit so we didn’t
get to go inside.
In front of the conservatory are two formal gardens - an
herb garden and a rose garden. Both are small, but nicely
laid out with interesting interpretation, especially in the
herb garden.
The pathways through the garden are very park-like and much
of the garden has the same ambiance as the larger
surrounding park.
However, scattered throughout there are interesting smaller
garden features that are beautiful. Colorful perennial beds
and interesting archways and gazebos make this a very
pleasant garden to wander around.
There is an abundance of water in the garden and in the
surrounding park. A large lake borders the garden on one
side, a small lake sits in the middle of the garden and
there are a number of water features scattered here and
there.
I was very impressed with how much this garden seems to be
integrated into the fabric of the community. Two areas of
the garden, one at each end, are given over to Community
Gardens. The sustainability message, evident throughout the
gardens, is aimed at locals rather than the global
community. From what I could see the community has embraced
the garden. During our visit we saw two wedding parties, a
senior citizen group, a family reunion and numerous family
groups, all taking advantage of this wonderful resource.
Also, everything was very well-maintained which can only be
attributed to an active volunteer force.
In some ways, this is more a park than a botanic garden.
There is very little interpretive signage and plant
labeling is meager. A few very nice plant labels exist on
memorial trees. There are laminated paper signs identifying
a few plants, and while the information on them is good,
there are too few and they look pretty shabby. I’m sure
money is tight for these things but a grant should be
obtainable.
Next door to the garden is a wonderful children’s garden.
It’s not clear how the two gardens are related but since
they are side by side and both are free to the public it’s
easy to consider them part of the same whole.
There are lots of hands-on activities for children, all
related to gardening and sustainability and during our
visit, it was packed with families.
As a visitor experience, Cheyenne Botanic Garden can’t be
compared to such great city gardens as Denver, Chicago or
Atlanta. Such a comparison would be unfair anyway, given
the different demographics. Still, it was an extremely
pleasant way to spend an afternoon. The people of Cheyenne
are fortunate to have such a resource available to them.
Click here to visit the garden’s website.
Click here
to see more photos of
Cheyenne Botanic Garden.