Spring 2026

Volume 74, No. 1

The Garden is enjoyed by all

With photos from The Friends archive of those who have enjoyed the Garden over the years.

Through many rich seasons that have blossomed, borne fruit, and then senesced and decayed—becoming nourishment for the next year’s rebirth—I have had the opportunity to witness the enduring magic of this one and only garden. There is truly nothing that fully captures the beauty that unfolds here. It is profound to see how people are moved and opened to richer, more vibrant versions of themselves as they participate in the dance of nature here. The Garden brings out very good things in people, and it relies on very good people to carry it forward. 

As we enter this new season, my heart is filled with gratitude for the many individuals who share their time, knowledge, wisdom, care, physical energy, and love for our wonderful Wild Botanic Garden—first envisioned nearly 120 years ago by Eloise Butler and a cohort of female botany teachers.

What is truly needed to honor this legacy is a volume crediting everyone who has loved and contributed to the Garden’s well-being over the years—from momentary acts to monumental ones. It would be an incredible story to read. In these few paragraphs, I simply wish to acknowledge the remarkable people who continue to support the Garden today, because its health and vitality are neither accidental nor assured. The Garden thrives because of people—staff, volunteers, the Friends of the Wildflower Garden, community members, and Park Board leadership—who care deeply about this place and the gifts it offers.

Visitors to the Wildflower Garden over many past years include the very young (top photo) young and old, and the very old.

Over the years, many staff members have worked here, most often as seasonal employees, dedicating themselves to its care. Some stay for a season, others for several years, and all contribute meaningfully to the life of the Garden. They educate the public, support visitors and volunteers, and care for the landscape itself. From leading programs to planting the native flora visitors admire each day, these individuals carry out essential work that sustains the Garden. Their thoughtfulness and skill uphold the spirit and ethos of this special place.

Equally vital are the Garden’s beloved volunteers. Docent Volunteers, Greater Eloise Stewards, and Legacy Volunteers bring an incredible level of continuity, connection and devotion to the Garden and Garden community. Through their work, they help cultivate awareness, stewardship, and joy among visitors in myriad ways. Each person who volunteers shares a part of themselves here, and together their efforts weave a fabric of care that people feel when they visit. Their presence helps bring the Garden to life and we are all the richer for it.

Since 1952, the nonprofit Friends of the Wildflower Garden has supported the Garden with integrity, intention, and steadfast commitment. Over the decades, the Friends have contributed in countless ways, helping strengthen the Garden’s resources and ensuring its continued vitality. Their long list of contributions reflects a deep and enduring bond to this beloved public garden. Truer friends could not be found.

Through the Friends, generous community members have also provided financial support that has made a meaningful difference in the Garden. Many features that visitors enjoy today were made possible through individual donations. More recently, thoughtful gifts have helped support naturalist staff salaries, allowing important educational programming to continue through the winter months. These contributions strengthen the Garden’s ability to serve visitors and deepen its role as a place of learning, reflection, and connection with the natural world.

The Garden’s wider community—visitors, Florilegium artists, researchers, students, and program participants—also adds immeasurably to its spirit. Everyone who walks through the gates, studies the landscape, creates art inspired by it, or carries memories of it with them helps sustain the Garden’s living legacy.

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board has owned and operated the Garden since its founding in 1907. Through many decades of change, the Garden has remained a treasured asset. Today we find ourselves at a moment with growing recognition of the importance of this unique public botanic garden and all that it brings to the community. With thoughtful stewardship and support for this blossoming, its future holds tremendous promise.

The collective love and care for the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary has grown season after season for nearly 120 years.

Thank you, Eloise, for giving us this place where we can grow wiser, more attentive, and more connected to the natural world. Your vision continues to flourish in this wild garden you began with such love and wonder.

See you on the trails! ❖ Susan

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Summer 2026

Volume 74, No. 2

Wildflower Garden is home to dozens of rare MN-naative plant species

At the heart of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden’s mission is the deliberate and attentive stewardship of Minnesota’s native plant species. Every day, Garden staff work to plant, monitor, manage, and protect rare native species, ensuring these important plants continue to thrive for generations to come.

Today, the Garden is home to more than 640 native plant species. While some have grown here naturally, most were thoughtfully introduced over the past 119 years to create one of the region’s most significant collections of Minnesota native plants. Maintaining this living collection is an ongoing effort, with staff continuously caring for and expanding the abundance of plants and the diversity of plant species found throughout the Garden.

Among these native plants are 23 species listed by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources as endangered, threatened, or of special concern. Remarkably, 21 of those species were introduced by Garden staff as part of dedicated conservation efforts. The collection also includes numerous rare and difficult-to-find plants that are not listed, including four native orchid species.

One of the Garden’s most beloved plants is the showy lady’s slipper, Minnesota’s state flower. These striking native orchids bloom each June, drawing visitors from across the Twin Cities and beyond. Although showy lady’s slippers originally grew in the Garden, the plants visitors see today have been added over time to help maintain a healthy and sustainable population.

The Garden is one of only two public locations in the Twin Cities where visitors can reliably view showy lady’s slippers in bloom. The other is the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska.

Over the past two decades, I have had opportunities to lead efforts to rescue and relocate showy lady’s slipper plants in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Transportation and numerous conservation organizations and individuals.

 

In recent years, the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum’s Plant Conservation Program has also contributed dozens of showy lady’s slippers through its Minnesota native orchid propagation program. A separate native orchid donation was also received last year. All of these recent additions have been carefully accessioned, planted, and monitored by the Garden’s seasonal Natural Resources Specialist Nicholas Purcell.  Please read the wonderful article written by Nicholas in this Fringed Gentian™ edition to learn more about this work.  

These partnerships play an important role in preserving Minnesota’s botanical richness and ensuring the long-term survival of this iconic species. We are deeply grateful to our conservation partners for their ongoing support and collaboration.

If you have never experienced showy lady’s slippers in bloom or if you have visited every year for decades, plan a visit to the Garden in mid-June to see them this year. The flowers can be found along the boardwalk trail known as Lady Slipper Lane, where their vibrant pink and white blossoms create one of the Garden’s most anticipated seasonal displays. 

As Eloise Butler wrote with adoration: “The showy lady slipper. . . is the crowning glory of the Preserve. It is endemic and has increased from year to year, so that there are now hundreds in large clumps making vistas of beauty through a marsh containing a few scattered tamaracks. Frequently a stalk bears two flowers and often three. . .Visitors are so enraptured with the display in my garden that they feel like falling on their knees to worship them. This Cypripedium is. . .considered by many the most beautiful flower in the world.” 

Follow @ebwgmpls on Facebook and Instagram for updates on bloom timing and other Garden news.❖ Susan

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Fall 2026

Volume 74, No. 3

A Season of Beauty, Connection, and Community at the Garden

Every year, a miracle occurs when the Garden gates open for another season and people find themselves at home here, among the flowers and green trees, the birdsong and buzzing bees. All season long, they meander along the soft trails, touching into the beauty and aliveness of nature, and touching into that same beauty and aliveness within themselves.

We are but mirrors to the world around us, and what we immerse ourselves in, we become as well.

A season at the Garden teaches us about our own rhythms, weather, hues, and multitudes. Those who have been blessed to experience many seasons here are shown how similar we all are, and how deeply we need spaces like this to nourish our deepest and truest selves.

Along the way, we make friends. Not only with the plants and myriad other beings of the Garden, but also with one another. For where does community thrive more fully than in nature, where the interconnected web of life is in constant conversation and rich collaboration? We are but a note in this intricate and ever-changing song of life, and in some places, like here, we can play with our pitch, find our voice, and begin to sing along with a world that wants us to participate, that wants to hear us sing.

The Garden, perhaps above all, is an invitation to arrive and to be a part of nature.

Above: Images of Garden staff, activities and visitors from recent years. Photos from MPRB and Friends of the Wildflower Garden.

And on that note, we have had quite an incredible season! Record-breaking numbers all around, incredible staff and volunteers who truly make it all possible, and so much kindness. Every day, there is an offer in the atmosphere here to be kind and connect. We are all the better for it.

As of October 4, we have guided more than 8,050 youth and adults through a wide variety of experiential nature programs this year. Wow! This is a new record for the Garden. Additionally, we have welcomed and engaged with more than 66,700 visitors since April 15. That’s more than 12,000 additional engagements compared with last season, and we still have a few weeks and weekends to go!

Two major Florilegium exhibits have taken place this season, one at MIA and another at the Bell Museum (on view through January 3). Eloise turned 175 and even had a beer named in her honor, and the Friends have raised more than $200,000 for the front entrance project, which will be underway in late October. It has been such a big, beautiful, and bountiful season here!

Above: A view of the exhibition room at the Bell Museum for the 2026 EBWG Florilegium exhibit. Photo J. Olson.

Our volunteers have been extraordinarily generous with their time and energy this season, both as docents and out in the field. We expect those numbers to top the charts as well by the end of the year!

Our staff—including Kimberly Ishkov, Nicholas Purcell, Debbie Keyes, Katie Laux, Linette Maeder, Keygan McClellan, Tammy Mercer, Maria Montero, Finley O’Connor, Lisset Olvera Chan, Cheyanne Rose, Natalie Holl, and Emily Scharfenberg—are each and all incredibly talented, professional, and genuinely wonderful human beings who have graced the Garden this season with their skills and presence. We are enormously fortunate to have such an incredible team of people working here.

I’m constantly in awe of the spirit of this place, how it nourishes people, and how deeply people love the Garden. May the miracle of the Garden continue to grow, blossom, flourish, and bring goodness and abundance into the world. Eloise, your Wild Botanic Garden is teaching so many people to find their song and sing it well, in the community of people and nature you began cultivating here 119 years ago.

Take good care this winter, Friends—Susan❖

Above: The old white oak in the upland in fall color. Photo G. Bebeau.