On July 24th, I headed out to Red Butte Gardens located on the campus of the University of Utah. I had been wanting to go there for some time and finally found a nice afternoon when I could go. Luckily, it was a realtivly cool and cloudy summer day. It also happened to be a free day, although normally it does cost a few dollars to get in. That was a nice suprise.

Red Butte Gardens is suituated in the foothills of Salt Lake City. Naturally there is a lot of grasses and scrub oak. The one feature that impressed me most about that gardens was that they incorporated the natural plantings into the cultivated areas. Other gardens generally leave grass in between areas but they left patches of scrub oak and native vegetation. It brought more continuity to the gardens: they blended with nature but not by sticking purely to natives and naturalized plantings.

There was a series of specialty gardens that I was not too impressed with. They could use more variety in their plant material. I also thought that many gardens should have been in raised areas, especially the fragrance garden, so there could be more interaction with the plants. Still, I found several perennials I was unfamilar with and enjoyed the plants in bloom.

Some of the plantings were a little monotnous and dated, but they also showed improvements. There was a new rose garden planted less than a year ago.  Right now the roses were a little small to enjoy but it should be spectacular in a few years. Red Butte was worth the visit but is not my favorite garden I have ever been too. Hopefully, they will continue to improve and maintain it and make it a place to go back to.