All the Dirt on Gardening

It took my breath away to be strolling along and suddenly see the Japanese Garden. Sunpu Castle Gate with the Mt. Fuji replica in the distance. The Song of the Lark Meadow is a gift to the hundreds of insects and birds that visit. Song of the Lark Meadow There are many restful places to stop and soak in the beauty.

A portion of Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha is named for the Union Pacific Chairman and CEO John c. Kenefick. The area is beautifully landscaped.. There is no charge to visit this incredible display. Kenefick Park is home to Centennial No. 6900 and Big Boy No. 4023. Largest, most powerful diesel-electric and steam engines ever built. The Lauritzen Gardens landscape is dotted with significant art pieces. Everywhere you walk you will wonder if you are in an outdoor art museum.  This bronze is in the Founder's Garden, a shade garden filled with 50 varieties of hostas and ferns. Doe-icelli's Birth of Venus by artist Jaqueline Eihausen

The Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha NE started with a rose garden in 1995. Today, beautiful plantings, water features, educational classes, shows, and events bring 200,000 visitors a year to the 100-acre botanical garden. The Omaha Botanical Center is on the site of woods and rolling terraces on a bluff, giving spectacular views from some locations. The Missouri River is a short distance to the east and is visible from Kenefick Park that houses Union Pacific Railroad’s Big Boy No. 4023 and Centennial No. 6900. The walk from the railroad cars to the museum itself is through well-tended perennial and annual beds as well as giant containers of flowers and plantings. Visitors enter Lauritzen through a 32,000 square-foot visitor/education center which by itself is worth a trip. At the center of the building there is a dramatic 65-foot tall vaulted glass roof that is visible from the highway. When we visited a few weeks ago the 5,000 square-foot display hall housed a fall chrysanthemum show an...