Reiman Gardens
University horticulture, rotating displays, a tropical conservatory, and butterfly work meet beside Iowa State’s campus.
Artwork inspired by Marvin Cone
Reiman Gardens combines outdoor collections suited to Iowa with controlled conservatory environments and a live butterfly wing. Labels, trial plantings, and seasonal design make it useful to gardeners as well as casual visitors.
Photograph plant labels, compare a species outdoors and under glass, and check butterfly-wing entry procedures. Outdoor value changes with season; winter visits are shorter but reveal structure and indoor collections.
Connect outdoor gardens, conservatory, butterflies with record labels with the plant to see Reiman Gardens as a changing horticultural composition rather than a checklist of specimens. At Reiman Gardens, compare iowa State University with outdoor gardens, conservatory, butterflies; seasonal change determines which part of record labels with the plant is most legible.
- Institution
- Iowa State University
- Setting
- Ames, Iowa, United States
- Admission
- Paid admission
Quick guide
- Features
- Outdoor gardens, conservatory, butterflies
- Useful habit
- Record labels with the plant
Read Reiman Gardens with purpose
- Features
- Begin Reiman Gardens with outdoor gardens, conservatory, butterflies, then follow one plant relationship—form, habitat, pollinator, or season—rather than collecting disconnected labels.
- Useful habit
- Compare record labels with the plant with a contrasting planting nearby and ask how soil, moisture, shade, and maintenance produce the difference.
- Institution
- Look closely at iowa State University from leaf or flower to whole bed; the garden's design becomes clearer when scale changes.
- Setting
- End with ames, Iowa, United States and note what is seasonal. A return to Reiman Gardens in another month should produce a genuinely different visit.
Good to know
Outdoor trials show what performs in Iowa, while the conservatory and Butterfly Wing reveal controlled climates. Strollers, large bags, coats, and plant material are excluded from the Butterfly Wing, which closes at 4:30 even on late garden evenings.
Notice these
- Iowa State University
- Outdoor gardens, conservatory, butterflies
- Record labels with the plant