Reiman Gardens in Ames is celebrating 30 years of growth on the Iowa State University campus.
The attraction has over 6,000 types of plants and boasts 26 themed garden areas including a children’s garden, trial plots and the world’s largest concrete gnome, as well as an indoor butterfly area containing up to 1,000 butterflies.
Spokesman Andrew Gogerty says they’ve grown from the original five acres to 17 acres now.
“We can’t really grow as far as the number of acres we have, because we’re just landlocked by streets at that point,” Gogerty says, “but just continuing to offer great educational programs and fun events for the public would be our mission going forward.”
Over the past three decades, the gardens have hosted students for research and internships, as well as collaborating on class projects including horticulture, marketing and industrial design.
Gogerty says they have unique ties to ISU and its students.
“They’re learning horticultural skills and taking them back to their classes and so there’s a lot of really good interaction between the university and Reiman Gardens,” he says.
Reiman Gardens will host a “Botanical Bash” on Saturday to celebrate the anniversary. Proceeds from the event will go towards supporting the gardens and its programming.
