Blooming from the beginning

k-state gardens rose garden with sculpture

Photo by Joan Wasser

When visitors tiptoed through the tulips during K-State Open House — 8,000 tulips, to be exact — they enjoyed part of a K-State mainstay that’s been sowing horticultural education and appreciation for 150 years.

In 2025, K-State Gardens celebrated its sesquicentennial. To personally experience this history, gather with fellow floral fanatics and nature nuts of all varieties for tours, farm-to-table foods and holiday-themed fun.

DID YOU KNOW?

Rather than being relegated to the compost pile after the first freeze, many of the gardens’ 4,000 annuals are tucked into pots to ride out the winter in toasty greenhouses. They reappear in spring, along with seedlings and propagated cuttings from horticulture students who experienced new growth of their own by honing crucial career skills.

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