Featured Garden: Franklin Conservatory And Botanical Garden in Columbus, OH

When planning a vacation or weekend get away I like to look for a botanical garden, national or regional park, historical memorial, etc. Of course the more related to gardening that they are, the more likely I am to visit them. This year I took a road trip Fall vacation and made a circle starting at home in Northwest Arkansas and traveling to Ohio, then Washington, D.C., them Charlotte and Asheville, North Carolina, Atlanta, GA, Memphis, TN, and then back home.

It turned out that I was going to be in Columbus, OH the two days before Halloween and I wanted to find something fun to do for that season. I discovered in my online searching that the Franklin Conservatory and Botanical Gardens hosts a Halloween event called Pumpkins Aglow. I felt for $22 it would be a fun evening, and I wanted to see how they had decorated their garden areas, planters, etc., for the Halloween holiday. This blog will be more of a photo gallery to show you what I discovered and less of an article about the event.

When buying tickets online, you are required to sign up for a specific time. I selected 5:45pm. This was before daylight savings time had ended, so much of my time there was during dusk. I found this to be perfect. I could see the decorations and features clearly as well as enjoy the flicker of the flames inside the carved pumpkins

There were a variety of displays of pumpkins, some carved and some not.

Upon entering the garden area, there was the display at the top with the name of the event, Pumpkins Aglow. From that point you were greeted with pumpkins in trees, spider pumpkins, skeletons with pumpkins,a cemetery with pumpkins, faces, bats, snakes, and jack-o-lanterns. There pumpkins of many colors as well.

A fog machine kept a smokey mist floating across the cemetery area. Next to the cemetery were skeletons hard at work keeping the gardens in tip top shape.

Ghosts made of chicken wire floated through the cemetery on the fog.

Bats hung underneath a bridge that connected different parts of the garden.

There was a variety of Jack-o-lanterns, some happy, some sad, some scary, and some whimsical.

There was one area devoted to spiders. They were on the grass and in the trees

Every niche and corner was decorated with pumpkins, hay bales, mums, cabbages,and other cold hardy plants.

My favorite skeleton, the mermaid, I had never seen a mermaid skeleton before.

The pics above or just a small portion of all the jack-o-lanterns and other pumpkin decorations at the Franklin Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. I’m glad that I went and checked it out. I love to see the work of creative people.

Did you see something that inspired you for decorating during Halloween? I’ve added some YouTube videos below for pumpkin carving and roasting pumpkin seeds.

Frankling Conservatory and Botanical Gardens Information

Address: 1777 E. Broad Street Columbus, OH 43203

Click here to get to their website for more information.