June 3 – September 24, 2023
The flirty side of summer

Long, brighter days have us oh-so-in-love with each other and the plant world. Picture flirty meet-cutes—Love Seats, poems on the spot, evening jazz, and more.

Buy admission

Find new ways to connect

Friendships, romances, family bonds, and random connections blossom in the heady days of summer.

Plant Connections

Find out how plants connect with each other and their ecosystems via stories and displays, some of which are interactive. You’ll learn about relationships between sloths and seeds, fungi and roots, and more. See below for a list of displays and where to find them:

Changing Relationships: Sloths & Seeds
Viburnum Walk
A Balanced Diet: Plant Nutrients
Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Garden
Underground Network: Fungi and Roots
Between the Esplanade & Model Railroad Garden
Plant Relationships Explored
English Walled Garden overlook

Goodman Theatre Presents:
In My Granny’s Garden

Sunday, August 20
10:30 a.m. & 12:30 p.m.
Corn! Green Beans! Collard Greens! Cabbage! Audiences of all ages can enjoy a rich sensory experience as Granny explains why the food that comes out of her garden tastes so good.

Grandparent's Day

September 10
10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Grandparents and grandchildren will be invited to write and draw what they love about each other on special tags that will be hung on display and more.
Learn more

Labor of love

Read or listen (via QR codes) to love letters to the Garden in English and Spanish written by some of our besties—volunteers. We’re only blushing a little. The 14 notes are scattered throughout the Garden.

Take a (love) seat and see what happens…

Our eight tête-à-tête benches are intimate spots with built-in planters—perfect for flirtation, conversation, contemplation, and more. Find them:

Esplanade patio
Regenstein Learning Campus
Thomas English Walled Garden
Native Plant Garden
Sycamore Grove
Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Garden
Stone Family Picnic Glade (beginning in July)
Farm on Ogden

Need a conversation starter?
Look on each love seat for nature-based poetry including the poem below.

“The Summer Day” by Mary Oliver
Bench location: English Walled Garden

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

Read more Love in Bloom poetry

That summer feeling

Meet someone new or reconnect with loved ones at our Love in Bloom special events.

After Hours Buzz

6 to 8 p.m.
August 10 & 24, September 14

Our scientists and other experts highlight plant connections; cocktails and light appetizers included. Fee applies. Buy tickets

Poems While You Wait

10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
August 5

No topic is too silly or sappy—ask a poet using a manual typewriter to tap out a Love in Bloom-themed poem personalized for you. Why not a sonnet about a garden bonnet? Look for teams of poets in three locations at the Garden.

Music on the Esplanade: Garden Love Songs

6 to 7:30 p.m.
August 2 & 30

Relax on the water’s edge with live jazz music featuring themes of love and nature.

“Jazz music is full of expressions of love, desire, vivacity, hope, transcendence, triumph in abject circumstances, energy, joy, confidence, excitement—the stuff of life.”
—Josiah Boornazian in his essay “What’s the True Meaning Behind Jazz Music?”