(616) 957-1580
1000 E. Beltline Ave. NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49525
www.meijergardens.org
I have a garden at my house, but after I saw this place, I’m not really sure what to call mine anymore. Once you go to the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, you’ll wonder the same thing I did. Why the heck have I never been here before? It’s acre after acre of art, science and natural beauty that’ll make you stop, think, wonder and dream.
Frederik Meijer of the famous Michigan-based Meijer grocery chain had a love of sculpture, and his wife Lena had a great love of horticulture. So they combined their dreams and created a magical place. In this 132-acre park you’ll find an incredible and fun children’s garden, a five-story high tropical conservatory with plants and birds from around the world and countless arrangements of fascinating foliage. You’ll see vegetation from all around the planet there, from beautiful flowers to desert cactuses. They even have some exotic carnivorous plants. Lucky I’m not a bug.
The sculpture park is over thirty acres of beautiful terrain containing the most comprehensive collection of outdoor sculptures in the entire Midwest. Some of these incredible sculptures are mammoth in size. To say this part of the park is impressive would be a huge understatement.
What Fredrick and Lena Meijer built together really is something that everyone should see. So carve out a day, get to Grand Rapids and check this place out.