USU Botanical Center & Ogden Botanical Gardens Partnership

At the USU Botanical Center, visitors will find educational opportunities for both children and adults. The mission of the Botanical Center is to guide the conservation and wise use of plant, water, and energy resources through research-based educational experiences, demonstrations, and technology.  The Botanical Center features teaching and demonstration gardens, ponds, a much-loved urban fishery, walking and biking trails, wetland areas that support birds and other wildlife, multiple waterwise gardens, a bearded iris and ornamental grass garden, an arboretum, and more!

About 19 miles away from the Botanical Center are the Ogden Botanical Gardens. The mission of the USU Ogden Botanical Gardens is to promote inner-city beauty and educational opportunities for everyone in a diverse and sustainable garden setting. This 11-acre garden includes an accessibility garden, a spring-blooming garden, a conifer collection, a cottage garden, an edible garden, an Asian garden, a pollinator garden, an arboretum, a rose garden, a trough garden, and two water-wise gardens. 

Both the Botanical Center and the Ogden Botanical Garden have plenty of opportunities to engage the community. Opportunities to get involved include volunteer management of the gardens, a full schedule of classes and workshops, educational field trips, and other events.

The pollinator garden has been designed using pollinator-friendly flowering perennials, including waterwise perennials from High Country Gardens. This garden is protected from pesticides to provide safe, healthy habitat for bees and other pollinators. 

Learn more about it here!

The pollinator garden has been designed using pollinator-friendly flowering perennials, including waterwise perennials from High Country Gardens. This garden is protected from pesticides to provide safe, healthy habitat for bees and other pollinators. 

Learn more about it here!

The Ogden Botanical Gardens are free and open to the public. Though they are funded through the city, resources to maintain such expansive gardens are limited for growing new plants such as bulbs and waterwise perennials.

That’s where High Country Gardens and our sister company, American Meadows, come in! Since 2023, we have donated over 350,000 new spring-blooming flower bulbs, including Tulips, Daffodils, Fritillaria, and others. Donations have also included Bearded Irises and waterwise plants to enhance their perennial gardens. 

Garden Deputy Director Nate Staker told us, “Many of these  bulbs have doubled if not tripled in size, giving us at least 1 million blooms. Our visitors have increased in the garden, and we are receiving compliments as well. We have also seen an increase in volunteer hours from 3,280 hours now up to over 5,000 volunteer hours. We appreciate the donations that we have received, and for the facelift that really helps our gardens.”

Before the donation of the flower bulbs, “there really wasn’t much as far as spring blooms in the garden,” said Nate. Beautiful spring flowers inspired the Ogden Botanical Gardens’ annual Earth Day Birthday Fair. The event helps bring new and first-time visitors to the botanical gardens, and helps increase awareness of the amazing resources in the local community. 

Follow along with the programming of the USU Botanical Center on Facebook and Instagram, and follow the Ogden Botanical Gardens on Facebook and Instagram.