Sensory Garden
The plantings in our 16-bed Sensory Garden create a rich, layered, and seasonally dynamic experience that fully engages all five senses. In addition, they visually incorporate a diverse palette of colors, forms, and textures that create contrast and interest throughout the growing season. Flowering plants — such as lavender, mint, bee balm, and coneflower — provide strong scent elements that invite visitors to get close. Tactile plants like lamb’s ear, soft foliage, and ornamental grasses encourage touch, while grasses and seed heads are auditory elements as they move with the wind. Edible plantings, including herbs, fruits, and vegetables, offer opportunities for taste-based interaction and learning for families.

For a show of pure color, few plants can measure up to the contribution of annuals in a garden. Annual plants:
Greenhouse Activities. DABG volunteers can be found in January in the greenhouse — packets of seed in hand! — ready to start the germination process. During the early months of each calendar year, annuals gradually fill two greenhouses as volunteers upgrade seedlings into pots ready to be planted in mid-May.
Our AAS Display Garden. Every year the Dubuque Arboretum & Botanical Gardens looks forward to receiving sample flower seeds or plugs that have been named All-America Selections based on their garden performance in tests conducted throughout the United States.
