My family loves gardens. While Dad enjoys looking at finished gardens, my mom, my sister and I like to create them. Imagine our joy when we found a botanic garden on a recent trip to Wyoming. With nine acres of outdoor gardens, a children’s village and a three-story indoor conservatory, the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens are truly incredible. This was the perfect choice for our trip, and I can’t even guess how many times one of us said, “Wow!”
We started in the Shane Smith Grand Conservatory, which not only is filled with tropical flora of all sorts, but also fauna. Three stories tall, the conservatory is home to everything from small succulents to towering trees. One tree is currently growing a large crop of bananas. There’s a lovely little stream on the main floor that hosts many beautiful koi fish. We even saw a turtle drying himself on the rocks.
The conservatory is broken into sections, including a desert habitat, prehistoric plants section and a bonsai house. My sister loved the cactus and succulents, while my dad admired the bonsai trees. I felt amazed by the petrified redwood stump among the plants. With all of the tropical plants, I could imagine a dinosaur (preferably an herbivore) coming out of the foliage. Some of the conservatory’s species lived on Earth since before the dinos, and are still growing in the wild.
Many of the plants on the main floor are bushy, like in the photo above. Wrap-around balconies make up the other two floors, where there are more flowering plants. My sister quickly identified whether the Christmas cactus were indeed of the Christmas variety, or the Easter or Thanksgiving types. I enjoyed seeing many succulents for the first time, including one that looks like a contorted piece of moldy ginger. I know that sounds gross, but it’s a very unique and interesting plant. There’s even one shelf with many kinds of wild orchids.
On one side of the main building where the conservatory is located, there is the Paul Smith Children’s Village. This is my parents’ favorite part of the gardens. It boasts a huge variety of fun and beautiful plants, like zinnias and sunflowers. We especially enjoyed the secret garden. An apple tree and many small plants around the edges are all guarded by a brick wall. As Dad said, it’s a great place to settle down with a book.
My favorite part of the Children’s Village is the repetition of certain species, but in different varieties. In nearly every section of the village, zinnias, coleus, and sunflowers all play a role in the landscaping. In each individual section, however, there are different colors and forms of the same plant. For example, in one bed you might find medium-sized pink zinnias, and in another bed, variegated scarlet and gold dwarf zinnias.
The rest of the gardens are located outside of the Children’s Village, around the conservatory. While everything is connected, there are individual gardens. The gardens closer to the conservatory have a little more structure, but the farther away you get, you find a cottage garden, wetland and native gardens, a little labyrinth and more. One of the highlights for me was seeing Love-in-a-mist for the first time. It’s one of my favorite flowers, but I’d never actually seen it outside of photos before now.
We also loved how many pollinators we saw. Fuzzy bees and stunning butterflies flitted everywhere we looked. The gardens have a designated pollinator garden, but honestly, I don’t think it’s necessary. There are so many pollinators everywhere else, especially in the children’s village. One of the most wonderful sights in the world is seeing a butterfly landing on a zinnia, or a bee on a sunflower.
Finally, whether you’re coming in or leaving the gardens, you get a nice show on the way out. The landscaping extends to the parking lot, with no less plant variety. There’s an especially large cosmos bush to greet visitors, and small lilies line walkways.
Cheyenne is a pretty city. Nice landscaping abounds everywhere, but the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens are truly something special. If you ever find yourself in Cheyenne with some spare time, I highly recommend paying the gardens a visit. It’s a great way to spend the afternoon with family. If you have a garden, you could even find a special dose of inspiration.
"Anna" is a teenage girl who loves to write, read, and do just about anything artsy. She enjoys writing about nature crafts and her experiences while learning to hunt and cook wild game. Anna firmly believes that backyard chickens lay the best eggs and that spending time outside with her flock every morning will start the day off happily. She is extremely grateful to her best friend, who inspired her to really take writing seriously. You can find her lost in her latest idea or listening to her sister "Rose" read book quotes. View all posts by Anna
