The Downing Children's Garden

Downing Children's Garden

Experience the magic of childhood as you enter under the iridescent rainbow of Botanica’s Downing Children’s Garden. Follow the yellow-stem path of the Rainbow Trail. Wind your way up to Sunflower Plaza Fountain. Discover the Monster Woods and jump over, or maybe in, the Salamander Stream.

Made possible by a donation from Paula and Barry Downing, the Downing Children’s Garden is an enchanting place for kids and kids at heart. Reflective of our Kansas roots and landscape, more than one acre of themed areas host youth programming and family activities. Young and old alike are delighted with one-of-a-kind encounters and breathtaking views from Granny Jean’s Treehouse. Stay a while or skip on through...the Downing Children’s Garden welcomes you!

More details about the Downing Children's Garden

Art in Garden Special Features Additional Details

Art in Garden

Art installations woven throughout the Downing Children’s Garden are fully interactive. The following artists contributed their work: Rich Bergen, Terry Corbett, April Dodson, Connie Ernatt, Greg Johnson, Andy Newbrey, Gary Price, Gino Salerno, Conrad Snider and Dustin Sypher.

The Magnifiers installation, created by Brady Hatter, consists of four magnifying posts on the very east side of the Downing Children's Garden near the Monster Woods. At each post, hold any object, such as a bug or a leaf, under the glass and see it magnified up to 3 times its size! Brady even added real bugs to the bottom so that there is always something to see, come check it out!

Have a seat in the Spider Pods inside Spider’s Lair! Created by local artist Connie Ernatt, this bronze spider and hand woven spider webs are an interactive display. The spider web pods were welded by local artist Brady Hatter and woven with twine by local artist Karen Cox. This is the perfect spot for kids to play and pretend to be a baby spider or a fly in a trap!

Check out the I Spy viewer in Downing Children’s Garden, high up in the Monster Woods Treehouse. There are also several polychrome bronze creatures in the riverbed, in sight of the I Spy treehouse station. The frog and crawdad were created by local artist Connie Ernatt. The box turtle, butterfly, dragonflies and cicada were created by local artist Karen Cox.

Follow the Yellow Stem Path of the Rainbow Trail and wind your way up to Sunflower Plaza Fountain in the heart of Downing Children’s Garden. A big thank you to Rachel Downs and her team for creating this welcoming, golden walkway along Rainbow Trail. Come visit your favorite features and see what’s growing at Botanica Wichita!

Special Features

Enter the Boeing Monster Woods where crafted tree structures, both real and manufactured, come to life throughout the wooded play area. Within Granny Jean's Treehouse, several elaborately designed fairy houses and garden critters hide in an installation called The Legend of a Laughing Child. The fairies stash all sorts of things in there, especially lost keys!
Sunflower Plaza Fountain’s beautiful mosaic replicates the geometrical structure of a sunflower and serves as a fun splash station for little hands! A metal pergola shades the Plaza.
Salamander Spring and Stream is among the rocks and crannies of a stone grotto. Young adventurers search for 13 lifelike salamanders along the banks. Grab a paintbrush, dip it in the multi-level fountain and paint the rocks.
The Enchanted Glen features metal sculptures crafted into a favorite children's story. Open the caterpillar to find dress up clothes for a fairytale play or put on a puppet show in the Enchanted Glen.
Young farmers gather at the windmill and explore raised garden beds in the Cargill Children’s Farm. Be sure to visit the Party Barn, representative of a typical Kansas barn. The hand-painted mural on the interior creates a realistic setting for birthday parties, classes and family activities. Grandma’s Farmhouse depicts country life equipped with toy furniture, play food, pots and pans. The replica rural farm features a chicken coop mural titled Coffee Cluck and an artistic wrought-iron fence piece called Entwined.
Enter Granddaddy’s Musical Maze through Charles Baughman’s Musical Rainbow. Find musical instruments tucked inside and make your way through to play a rainmaker, pagoda chimes, drums and more.
Botanica is excited to announce a new feature in our gardens. The Woodland Apothecary in the Downing Children’s Garden is finally completed. Botanica is opening a new space for people to explore natural remedies, investigate and learn about nature and its relation to humans. Included with membership and general admission. Come check it out! Thank you to the F. Price Cossman Memorial Trust and Downing Family Foundation for making this amazing project happen!

Additional Details

Polliwog Pond is Botanica’s kidney-shaped farm pond with fish, stepping stones, Hardy Water Lilies and Water Hyacinths. In the spring, keep your eyes and ears peeled for polliwogs and frogs in the pond area. Made entirely of car parts, the towering dragonfly sculpture, Mosquito Hawk, looks over Polliwog Pond.
Hidden underneath the trees is a replica Fossil Wall displaying a native Kansas dinosaur, the Claosaurus. Children dig up and bury faux fossils in the sandbox.
Look for mice on a Muenster Mission collecting twigs to build a rocket ship for traveling to the moon in search of green cheese. They think Einstein’s equation, E=mc2, means Earth=mooncheese2
The Ant Hill Sandbox features larger-than-life ants sitting on an ant hill surrounded by giant leaves.
Every year, hummingbirds lay eggs in the Downing Children’s Garden. Hummingbird eggs are turquoise and as small as one Hershey’s Kiss. Hummingbirds are among the smallest and fastest birds, and the only bird that can fly backwards. Ask a Botanica volunteer if the hummingbirds laid their eggs yet this year.
The large, clay squirrel planter, quaintly named Mr. Biggles, is typically planted with a foxtail fern. These fern-like plants have arching plumes of tightly packed, needle-like leaves that appear soft and delicate.
The Woodland Retreat provides a public picnic area and gathering space for special events. Sneak past the Monster Heads to get there and look for the leaf-shaped roof.