Idaho Botanical Garden

Idaho Botanical Garden If gardening in a dry climate is your challenge, the Idaho Botanical Garden has lots of solutions! Idaho Botanical Garden Boise, Idaho

Here’s a great place to visit if you’re looking for water-wise garden ideas. Founded in 1984 on the site of the historic Idaho State Penitentiary, many of the gardens within the Idaho Botanical Garden still feature the previous buildings’ native sandstone walls.

There’s so much to explore in this 32-acre garden: an English border designed by John Brookes; native and drought-tolerant displays; a rose garden; a large children’s garden; vegetable beds, and a shady meditation garden with a koi pond where you can relax and beat the heat. And visitors to the Idaho Botanical Garden should also check out the adjacent Firewise Demonstration Garden to see plants and landscaping practices that can help protect their homes.

Although winter temperatures are somewhat mild in this zone 6 garden, it only averages 11 inches of rain each year. The Dry Garden above showcases a wide range of super-drought-tolerant plants for gardeners in the Intermountain West who want good-looking borders without much watering. Horticulture Director Duran Villegas says they focus on creating plantings that visitors can have success with at home.

In the Native Plant Garden you’ll find Munro’s globemallow (Sphaeralcea munroana), Oregon sunshine (Eriophyllum lanatum), sulphur-flower buckwheat (Eriogonum umbellatum) and other plants that thrive in this region. Behind the scenes, the team at the Idaho Botanical Garden is working with the city of Boise to increase the population of a rare, native perennial, the Boise sand verbena (Abronia