Hidden Landscape Gems

Hidden Gems Worth Visiting

Reception and Sunken Gardens at Rotary Botanical Gardens

by Heather Prince From an abandoned sand and gravel quarry, a beautiful 20-acre garden set around quiet ponds and mature trees now resides in Janesville, Wisconsin. Started in 1988, as a clean-up project for the two local Rotary International clubs, one member, Dr. Robert Yahr, envisioned grand possibilities for the site. Now, several international-themed gardens, lush seasonal displays, a daylily collection, woodland gardens, and more are lovingly tended by staff and many volunteers.

One of the gardens that has become a popular wedding venue and a spot for quite respite, is the Reception Garden and adjacent Sunken Garden. Among the formal spaces at Rotary, these are framed by the mature trees of the Shade Garden and Woodland Glen, creating a private sense of serenity.

The Reception Garden is designed as a square to welcome you to these more organized spaces after the naturalistic surrounding gardens. Walls of Techny arborvitae screen the busy parking lot. Raised lannon stone planter beds provide strict horizontal structure. Blue paver stones give a clean and elegant note to the hardscape. The raised beds are planted in layers of perennials in blue, white, and silver, making this space magical after dark. Plants have been chosen for softness of texture and fragrance including white calamint, blue fescue, blue campanula, lavender agastache, blue Russian sage, and silver willow. At the center, simple concrete planters feature gardenia standards underplanted with blue lobelia. It is instantly romantic.

The entrance to the Sunken Garden is a Tudor-style stone arch that was once the entrance to the Parker Pen Company’s world headquarters formerly located in Janesville. Step through into large beds filled with white flowers and silver foliage. You’ll walk down a slight incline of memorial bricks to a panel of lawn surrounded by a brick path. More than 200 plants are planted in these gardens including bulbs, perennials, and annuals. The mature arborvitae walls tower over you creating a sense of snug enclosure. At the far end, a round pool with a bubbling fountain adds to the soundscape of birdsong and bees buzzing. Comfortable benches are scattered throughout inviting you to bring a book and settle in for the afternoon. Four huge urns are planted with colorful annuals that change in theme from year to year. Although clearly an event space, these formal gardens are breathtaking in their restrained plant palette and the romantic blowsiness of the plant choices. Annabelle hydrangeas tumble in the background as the flower spikes of white liatris, the white daisies of echinacea, and spilling white petunias grace the beds. This is a place for ideas on incorporating white and silver into garden spaces, experiencing proportions that shift from human-scale to grand, and mixing weights of plant material for a deep richness of texture. Make sure to run your hands through the fragrant foliage and stop and smell the gardenias, spicy perfume.

1455 Palmer Drive Janesville, WI Hours: 9 am to 6 pm, daily, but check the website for seasonal variations https://rotarybotanicalgardens.org

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