Gardens

Botanic Garden Events

2026 Events & Garden Activities

Rooted in community. Focused on health.

**Please reach out to gardens@kumc.edu with any questions or if you would like to participate in any event without a specific date.

APRIL | Sustainability Week

HEB Container Planting Day
April 9 | 9:30 a.m. – 12 p.m | HEB Courtyard

Arbor Day Tree Talk
April 20 | 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. | Hybrid

Tulip Sale
April 16–17 | 1 – 3 pm. | Dykes Library
$10 suggested donation

Arbor Day Tree Giveaway
April 24 | 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. | Murphy Courtyard

MAY | Planting & Wellness

Garden Tour: Pollinators at Work
May 7 | 12 – 12:30 p.m. | Murphy Courtyard

Cardiovascular Support Group Presentation
May 19 | 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. | Virtual

Well-Being Conference: Dig in the Dirt
May 20 | 1 – 2 p.m. | HEB Courtyard

Campus-Wide Planting Days
Happening all month long across campus gardens

JUNE

Garden Tour: Food is Medicine in Action
June 4 | 12 – 12:30 p.m. | Murphy Courtyard

Campus-Wide Harvesting Days
Throughout June

AUGUST

Honey Harvest Event
Date TBD | 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. | HEB Courtyard

Campus-Wide Harvesting Days
Throughout August

OCTOBER

Sustainability & Wellness Fair
Date TBD | 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. | HEB Ad Astra

March 2022

In a collaboration with Bee KC, staff in the Botanic Gardens will install a beehive on the green roof of the Health Education Building and another in an open area near the Hemenway building. Faculty, staff and students were invited to watch the installation at on Friday, March 25, 2022, on the west side of Hemenway. The Seven beehives installed on KU Medical Center campus article has more information on the installations.

April 2021

In honor of Earth Day 2021, the Botanic Gardens team shared a series of videos and tips throughout the week of April 19-23 2021.

We teamed up with Thrive Food Pantry with a vision for creating a high tunnel greenhouse on our Kansas City campus. In 2020, landscaping staff harvested approximately 1,200 lbs of produce from the botanical gardens on campus, which was provided to students at the food pantry. A high tunnel greenhouse could dramatically increase the amount of fresh produce that the pantry is able to provide.

Earth Week 2021 Videos

January 2020

A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Cancer Research Garden was held Thursday, Jan. 16, 2020. Located in Hixson Atrium, this garden is filled with plants and compounds that are being studied by researchers at The University of Kansas Cancer Center to see how certain foods can help prevent or heal cancers.

The garden is an innovative collaboration between the landscape service's botanic gardens initiative and the cancer center.

View the Fox 4 news story, 'Food is powerful': Cancer research growing in small garden at KU Cancer Center and "The University of Kansas Medical Center Cancer Research Garden Grand Opening" article on the American Public Gardens Association website.