Most Famous Botanic Garden Of Omaha - Lauritzen Garden

@harpiytravel Local Legend

Trip Overview

Country visited: United States
City visited: Omaha, Ne, United States
Month traveled: May
Cost: $
Traveled with: Couple
Total length of trip: 1 day

Omaha, NE, United States

Arrived by car

Stayed 1 day

It's been a long time since I visited Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha. Harmit has never been there, so we planned for a visit to the place at the start of this month. It's a blooming season, so we were expecting to see some colors in the garden.

It consists of many botanic gardens along with arboretum. Few popular gardens are Rose garden, Japanese garden, Victorian garden, Herb garden, Children's garden and Model railroad garden. Timed tickets need to be purchased online for the visit, they are allowing only certain number of visitors at a time, so while booking you need to choose arrival time - 1/2 hour time slot.

We booked our tickets for 11-11:30 AM slot for Saturday. We reached there at 11:25, tickets were checked outside the building and once inside, they were scanned at the counter. We took the map and followed the directions.

Path is routed from the greenhouse which is adjacent to main building. It contains a lot of plants in a 2 story building. It was little hot and crowded there. We avoided the crowed and explored other crowed-free sections. I particularly loved Cactus family section. There were many tropical plants from various parts of the world. There was also a banana tree with its big flower. It was very well maintained with mist flowing in the air all over the place.

We came outside of Greenhouse in the open area. There was a trail going towards the gardens. Trail is surrounded by various kind of gardens where you can spend some time, take photographs or just rest. It was amazing to see bunches of flowers covering the branches of tress. It was like that they were in a hurry to swallow the branches. how beautiful !

After visiting few gardens, we came across beautiful Woodland Waterfall, a perfect place to enjoy the silence of nature. Reading a book there under the shade of trees would be a treat.

We followed the directions of map and covered most of the gardens at the front side of the property. Not all, but most of the people were wearing masks. I took many pictures and then we rested a bit under the perfect shade of tree branches.

It was getting hot and Harmit was feeling bit tired. So we decided to take a tram. We went again to the reception and booked the next available tram which was supposed to leave in 15 mins. It's typically a 50 mins guided tour where you listen about each garden while crossing them. You can hop on and off at the designated stops too.

It was good to be in tram in the heat and to know about the gardens. There were some really beautiful gardens out there. Victorian garden was very beautiful and so were the others. Although roses in Rose garden were not yet bloomed, there were colors and beauty everywhere.

There was this cute Model Railroad Garden which was absolute delight to watch. Model trains pass through landscapes, landmarks and famous buildings of Omaha. Everything is made up of natural resources like leaves, twigs, bark, berries, pinecones, gourds and cinnamon sticks.

After completion of tour, we were dropped at the entrance. There were beautiful pink flowers at the opposite end of entrance in full bloom. I captured them through my camera.

We entered the building again and went for Bonsai exhibition. Exhibition was from the bonsai group of Omaha. We inquired about bonsais, their maintenance and purchased a maple-bonsai tree. Transactions were cash only, so we asked them to keep our bonsai till we come back with cash. We went back to our apartment for cash and came back to collect bonsai.

List of gardens :-

Arboretum and Bird Sanctuary
Arrival and Parking Gardens
Children's Garden
Conservation Discovery Garden
English Perennial Border
Festival Garden
Founders' Garden
Garden in the Glen
Garden of Memories
Herb Garden
Japanese Garden
Marjorie K. Daugherty Conservatory
Model Railroad Garden
Peony Garden
Rose Garden
Song of the Lark Meadow
Spring Flowering Walk
Victorian Garden
Woodland Trail
Woodland Waterfall

You need plenty of time to cover all these gardens. Whether you walk or take tram, its always fun to explore the gardens. They are superbly managed and maintained by staff.

Cost :-

Entry Fee -> 10$ for Adult, 5$ for Children [age 3-12] excluding taxes
Tram Fee -> 5$ per person

It was nearly 4 PM and we were hungry. We signed up for Bonsai club and left for the day. It was an amazing trip, we would love to visit soon, especially to see those roses.

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