Education & Events - Reiman Gardens

2012 Some Assembly Required
In 2012, Reiman Gardens will be designed to celebrate how things are built. Be it garden-inspired sculptures built with LEGO® pieces, protein chains, sticks gathered and placed by animals, plants or mortar, the process of composition and assembly happens all around each and every day. Join us on a journey exploring a world where some assembly is required.

 

World-renowned, best-selling author and certified LEGO® artist, Sean Kenney, will use LEGO® bricks to create a new and edgy blockbuster display for the gardening world. Twenty-seven scultpures built with LEGO® bricks have been commissioned to create 14 individual displays ranging in size from 6 inches to nearly 8 feet using almost 500,000 individual LEGO® bricks. The sculptures are inspired by gardens and wildlife from birds to flowers, butterflies to garden tools. The exhibit will become a traveling exhibit, premiering at Reiman Gardens in 2012.  

This beautiful and peaceful spring display highlights keepsakes and treasures from Iowa State University’s rich, architectural past. Explore soft blooms, accented with treasures from several buildings and structures which have found a new home in the warmth of an amazing tropical Conservatory.  

 

For most plants, soil is essential. See how soil is built from the ground up.

Beautiful architectural photography by local photographer Alex Egeland will be a compilation of traditional versus non-traditional in both architecture and photography style. See these amazing shots that few take the time to really stop and see.

Urban knitting is sometimes considered to be the most inoffensive form of graffiti. This “off-the-cuff” garden display is sure not to be a “yarn”. See how imaginative knitting techniques can be woven and fitted to cover and highlight prominent plants and structures throughout the Butterfly Wing.

These bulbs are going out with a bang… The Big Bang that is! Come explore where it all began with our interpretation of the creation of the Universe itself. Just as computer images are built pixel by pixel, this year’s spring bulb display will be put together bit by bit and bulb by bulb.

Break out of your cage and fly to take a peak at several different bird house styles that are home to some of Iowa’s birds, both great and small. The houses will be decorated by flocks, groups and individuals from around the state of Iowa.

You are what you eat! Fruits and vegetables are an important part of a balanced diet. Fill up your plate with healthy veggies and join First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! Museums and Gardens initiative. It will bring you down the garden path to a healthier and happier you.

Joey and Jesse’s Herb Garden will be transformed into the magnificent world hypertufa. Learn and explore wonderful applications of handmade hypertufia ranging from rockery troughs, garden statuary, and even creative stepping stones.

 

Take a microscopic journey deep inside a living cell and find out what makes most living things tick. Walk amongst double helix and protein chains or maybe even take a dip in a gene pool. This garden is sure to grow on you.

 

Humans aren’t the only creatures that use materials to build. Stroll through the Children’s Garden to see how crafty animals use resources in the environment to make homes for themselves and their families.

 

Plants don’t just have to grow on the ground. When space is limited, sometimes the only way to grow is up. This garden demonstrates the use of vertical wall systems to grow plants where literally the sky is the limit.

This seasonal planting display integrates some of the latest and greatest plants, where just like a puzzle, all the pieces have to fit together. See how gardeners turn, flip and twist combinations of plants and materials to create and solve a very puzzling landscape!

 

Catapult yourself into a wonderful and imaginary garden scene where the task of the simple is made incredibly complex. A Rube Goldberg machine-styled sculpture will keep your heading spinning in this wild and inventive garden exhibit.

 

Hitch a ride with the elves on Santa’s sleigh all the way to The North Pole. It’s been a busy year gearing up for the big night so grab some hot chocolate, bring your imaginary hammer and join in the magic of Santa’s Workshop.