The Founders’ Garden is a place where one can pause for solitude or reflection. It was the first garden at Lauritzen Gardens, established in 1993 in collaboration with the Shady Choice Hosta Society.
It is made up of hundreds of beautiful hosta representing nearly 50 varieties including one of the largest leaf varieties, ‘Sum and Substance,’ a garden gazebo and many different flowers and plants.
Other shade-loving perennials and ferns – representing more than 150 varieties - are joined with annual plantings to provide color throughout the season. More than 10,000 spring bulbs bring this garden area to life earlier than our other garden areas. Visitors enjoy stopping in this garden to sit on the benches and enjoy a relaxing retreat from their otherwise hectic day.
Species of plants found in the Founders’ Garden include paperbark maple, meadowsweet, Lenten rose, hydrangea, Jacob’s ladder, corkscrew willow, viburnum, astilbe, jack-in-the-pulpit and many others.
The founders’ garden straddles the garden roadway. The two sides of the garden have different origins. The garden to the west is the original garden established in 1993. The garden to the east side was planted during the fall of 1999. It contains a restroom facility and drinking fountains.
The wrought iron gate that now serves as a backdrop to the Founders’ Garden was once the entrance gate to Lauritzen Gardens. Elements of the gate were originally found on the entrance gate to Peony Park, a historical amusement park in central Omaha that closed in 1995.
“Doe-icelli’s Birth of Venus” Sculpture
Located in the Founders’ Garden, “Doe-icelli’s Birth of Venus” was created by local artist Jacqueline Eihausen in 2001 for Omaha’s J. Doe Project. The sculpture is the artist’s interpretation of the classic 15th century painting “Birth of Venus” by Sandro Botticelli.
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