Ashton Gardens features 50-acres of trees, blooms, hardscapes, water features and sculptures.
Italian Garden
Monet Lake
"I learn a lot from plants because plants just do their thing. They don't have to fit in. They all contribute. Like humans, they all have different connections."
– Sarah Allred, Horticulture Coordinator at Ashton Gardens
Garden Highlights
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Fragrance Garden
Sweet smells permeate throughout the entire garden, but the Fragrance Garden is where it all lets loose. Raised beds of fennel, rosemary, dill and lavender bring the scents closer to the nose, but this isn’t your average herb garden. Also on display are fragrant rhubarb, lemon verbena, Cardinal basil, Scarlet Runner bean, Malabar spinach and Cuban oregano.
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Gardening Classes and Events
Locals know the gardens for the famed Tulip Festival, but beyond that attraction, Ashton Gardens offers visitors a variety of educational and community events. Among their programs are movies and concerts in their outdoor amphitheater, a Secret Garden book club, rotating national garden exhibits, veggie garden classes, self-guided tours and Dog Walk Wednesdays.
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Monet Lake
Much like French Impressionist Claude Monet’s famous series of paintings, Monet Lake features water lilies, marshes, trees, bridges and koi fish. To the east, the view of Mount Timpanogos is less about Europe and more about Japan, a perspective reflecting the Japanese expression of shakkei for “borrowed landscape.” This technique incorporates a distant landscape into a garden design.
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Parterre Garden
The Parterre Garden centers around an almost-life-size carousel structure holding topiaries of circus animals. The merry-go-round art marries formal garden beds — representing the four seasons — each built symmetrically around this garden’s centerpiece. Parterre comes from the French word ‘on the ground,’ which describes a formal garden on level ground made up of enclosed flower beds typically in symmetrical patterns.
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Rose Garden
Is a garden truly a garden if it doesn’t have roses? This garden features the classic bloom in all shapes, sizes and varieties. Collections include favorites such as the coveted David Austin and Downton Abbey roses. Tea, shrub, garden, climbing and sprays grow happily inside a rotunda framed partially by a pergola, built with 20,000 pieces of timber.
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Secret Garden
The Secret Garden is a shady nest tucked into the sprawling landscape. Based on the classic book by Frances Hodgson Burnett, the English garden showcases a honeysuckle-covered tunnel, arched wooden gates, worn brick walls and a small fountain. Carved benches provide resting spots below a towering canopy of Dinosaur, Ginko and Dawn Redwood trees.
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Waterwise Garden
The Waterwise Garden educates visitors on Utah’s drought-tolerant native plants, such as penstemon, Mojave sage, allium and salvia. Signs educate visitors on how often and how much to water their Utah gardens. Here’s one important tip: Utahns should water every three days for 40 minutes, instead of every day for 20 minutes, to encourage roots to grow deeper and stronger.
Discover More
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International Peace Gardens
The International Peace Gardens is a 12-acre garden tucked inside Salt Lake City’s Jordan Park. Located just two miles from downtown, it’s a hidden treasure of Salt Lake’s Glendale neighborhood known for its cultural, religious and ethnic diversity.
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Red Butte Garden
The largest botanical garden in the Intermountain West, Red Butte Garden tucks neatly into the foothills of Salt Lake City, just 4.5 miles from downtown. Sensational views can be found in every direction, with the mighty Wasatch Mountains above and the Salt Lake valley below.
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Things To Do In Provo
Get an alpine start on a hike to the Timpanogos summit, or spend a relaxing day floating down the gentle waters of the Provo River. Whatever your preferences, you will have no trouble finding things to do in Provo.
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Utah Gardens
Utah’s indigenous flora has adapted to an incredibly diverse selection of terrain, as evidenced when viewing fields of fragrant sagebrush in the arid desert steppes or the lush meadows of vibrant wildflowers in the high Wasatch Mountains. These local blooms and trees are cultivated alongside exotic vegetation from around the world in public gardens across the state. Botanical centers like Red Butte Garden grow plants for research purposes, but Utah is also home to conservation gardens, learning centers and aesthetic gardens.
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Utah Wildflowers
Stop and smell the roses, so the saying goes. That may work in the English countryside, but here in the Beehive State, it’s Utah wildflowers that deserve notice.
