Best Of

Best Flower Beds In Minnesota

June 27, 2017 / 1:00 PM CDT / CBS Minnesota

By Linda Cameron

Minnesota's botanical displays are perennial. The state's indoor and outdoor gardens boast some of the most beautiful seasonal flower beds and gardens. In colder weather, you can pass the time in a warm indoor botanical museum if you really love flowers. In warm weather, you'll meet hundreds of people out for a garden stroll.

Munsinger Clemens Gardens
1515 Riverside Drive, S.E.
St. Cloud, MN 56304
(320) 255-7238
www.munsingerclemens.com

Named after Joseph Munsinger and Bill and Virginia Clemens, these botanical gardens are a study in symmetry and landscaping. Munsinger Gardens was a former sawmill converted into a tree-lined park with stone paths, a lily pond, a fountain and fragrant flower beds. Clemens Gardens is a series of six gardens along a red brick walkway. The red brick leads to sculptured garden grounds lined with roses, flower trellises, trees and fountains. Joseph Munsinger and Bill Clemens were respected landscape artists. Their work is commemorated through the Munsinger Clemens Botanical Society.

Como Park Zoo And Conservatory
1225 Estabrook Drive
St. Paul, MN 55103
(651) 487-8200
www.comozooconservatory.org

The park has stunning botanical attractions in addition to a zoo and playground. The park's conservatory has several gardens, each with its own theme and concept. You'll love the seasonal colors and fragrance of the flower beds and plants in the sunken gardens. At the Charlotte Partridge Ordway Japanese Garden, you can enjoy a tea ceremony and lighting festival. You can go on safari in a simulated tropical rain forest and from there venture to an orchid house. There are 12 gardens to choose from. One of these may fit your style.

The Bakken Museum
3537 Zenith Ave. S.
Minneapolis, MN 55416
(612) 926-3878
www.thebakken.org

Do the medicinal and heart healthy benefits of a garden make your heart beat? Before modern medicine changed lives, gardens were often cultivated for medical purposes. At the Bakken Museum, you can see and learn about medicinal plants, organic composting and indigenous herbs. This educational garden retreat is both history inspired and heart healthy.

Arneson Acres
4711 W. 70th St.
Edina, MN 55435
(612) 928-4578
www.edinamn.gov

Arneson Acres is a botanical park with 28 gorgeous gardens. Annual and perennial botanicals flower here according to the season. Some garden varieties are trillium, ferns, trout lily, wild lily-of-the-valley, jack-in-the-pulpit, columbine, blood root and Virginia bluebell. Lilies seem a perennial favorite. They even grow around the parking lot. A few steps from the parking lot stands a charming gazebo made of pinewood, cedar, and peach and burgundy concrete. It's a favorite social gathering place for flower and garden shows and parties.

Schell Mansion And Gardens
17th St., S.
New Ulm, MN 56073
(507) 354-5528
www.schellsbrewery.com

Built in 1885 by brewery founder August Schell, the mansion and beer gardens are in the National Registry of Historic Sites. The stone architecture retains the Victorian charm of the shaded and partly sunken garden grounds, unchanged since their construction. Behind the mansion, where wild lilies grow, is a deer park. Although the mansion is closed to the public, peacocks sometimes homestead on the premises. Admission to the beer gardens is free, unless doing a brewery tour.