Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden

Gardens are truly beautiful, they can bring you instant peace of mind and tranquility, but they also provide many benefits to the environment. Gardening reduces the carbon footprint, purifies the air around us, and has an extremely positive impact on the ecosystem. Gardening can also help you lower stress levels and can even help you lower blood pressure. The city of Des Moines seems to understand the wonderful benefits of gardening, so government officials and locals Iowans combined, have created many urban gardens throughout Des Moines, such as: Dogpatch Urban Garden, Claire and Mile Mills Rose Garden, and Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden. I was fortunate enough to see Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden myself, which is full of diverse plant life indigenous to different parts of the world! Below you can see the pictures I captured of this exquisite garden!

This is the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden Entrance, located downtown at 909 Robert D Ray Dr.

The outdoor garden area of Greater Des Moines Botanical Gardens is thriving and beautiful, even in the brisk fall air of November.

A striking view of a giant palm tree in Greater Des Moines Botanical Gardens, indoor greenhouse garden.

This is a Ficus Retusa – Cuban Laurel plant, grown in the Greater Des Moines Botanical Gardens greenhouse. The Ficus Retusa is a truly unique plant, it’s indigenous to peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, even grows in Florida. This plant species is commonly made into Japanese Bonsai trees as well.

These are tropical banana trees, grown in The Greater Des Moines Botanical Gardens greenhouse. Did you know that banana plants are one of the world’s biggest perennial herbs? Some banana plants can grow up to 30 feet tall in fact. Banana trees are known to be indigenous to parts of India and Southeast Asia.

This is an extraordinary cactus, its round, short and spiky, unlike many cacti I have ever seen. This cactus is grown in the Greater Des Moines Botanical Gardens. Many cacti are native to Arizona and Mexico.

This is a simply gorgeous close-up view, of lily pads floating along above a pond, in the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden.

This is an Adenium Obesum plant, this plant really attracts attention because of its beautiful pink color, it’s also known to be poisonous. This handsome plant is native to Africa.  This plant can be seen in the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden.

The breathtaking waterfall in the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden, is the center of attention in the garden. The way vegetation is growing on the rocks along the waterfall, really is something.

This picture sums up how wonderful the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden really is. The irony in the fact, that the chaotic beauty of so many diverse species of plants living under the same roof, leaves you feeling the exact opposite of chaotic, after witnessing this beauty, you leave feeling completely peaceful.