Ewing and Muriel Kauffman Memorial Garden

It's that time of year again, the first day of bulb planting! To plant a bulb is to believe in tomorrow get planting!

The Garden is open, but be aware that if paths become icy or snow-covered, we will close until path conditions improve.

Did you know that there are fall reblooming iris? As for the Kansas City area, we have found that 'Summer Olympics' is the most reliable fall rebloomer. Last year, this iris bloomed until the first snowfall!

Have you seen the characters we crafted out of scrap wood? There are six of them placed throughout the garden as part of our autumn display!

Butterflies are still in abundance in the garden! They're loving both our native and exotic asters. Pictured here are two monarch butterflies on 'Jin Dai'.

Our fall mum display is coming into full bloom, come check it out!

Have you ever seen a kaleidoscope of butterflies? Though it's not native to North America, (seven sons tree) is perfectly timed to bloom during the monarch butterfly fall migration in our area. Our is also a Kansas City Metro champion tree, which means it can serve as a migration pit-stop for hundreds of butterflies at a time!

More of the fall display is being installed each day take advantage of the beautiful weather and come watch the progress in action!

It's beginning to look a bit like autumn! Our fall display will be installed over the next two weeks, stay tuned!

You are my sunshine when skies are gray

Late summer can be a tricky period to fill with blooms, but is looking fresh and lively right now in the perennial beds! This plant sometimes goes by the common name "monkshood" due to the shape of the flowers which resemble the cowl worn by medieval monks. Do you see the resemblance? If you decide to add this wonderful flower to your own garden, be aware that all parts of the plant are poisonous. You should wear gloves any time you handle .

Over the next two weeks, you will see a major transformation take place in the garden. All of our boxwood hedges have been removed they will be replaced with new varieties which are much more resistant to both boxwood blight and boxwood leafminer.

Eastern tiger swallowtails can often be hard to photograph, however, this one was quite distracted while feeding on a butterfly bush! Tiger swallowtails use a wide variety of plants as host plants for their caterpillars such as sweet bay magnolia, black cherry, tulip poplar, cottonwood, ash, and more. One of the favorite native flowers of the adults is Joe-pye weed, .

Check out this year's pergola star, Lophospermum! Lophospermum are versatile; they can gently climb if given a structure to intertwine, or they can cascade down when placed in containers or hanging baskets. The large flowers are reminiscent of a gloxinia, though the plant is actually a member of the family Plantaginaceae, making them more closely related to snapdragons.