Powell Gardens, Kansas City's Botanical Garden
Powell Gardens is a beautifully maintained botanical garden near Kansas City offering a peaceful retreat with winding walking trails, beautiful seasonal flower exhibitions, and kid-friendly activities like hiking and fountain splash areas. With wheelchair accessibility, picnic tables, restrooms, and free shuttle buses, it’s perfect for families and anyone looking to enjoy nature and serene landscapes. The garden also features stunning architecture, including a glass chapel and a conservatory filled with tropical orchids.
Reviews
It’s been around 15 years since I’ve visited Powell Gardens. When I left, I wondered why I had waited so long. It’s one of the most peaceful places in the KC area. Winding paths leading to quiet retreats tucked into the beautiful landscape offer a much need break from the outside world. Even in March, when most everything is still brown, there was still beauty to be found. Powell did a wonderful job of bringing the outside in with a gorgeous orchid event called Orchid Delirium. The glass dorm conservatory was filled to the brim with orchids and other tropical flowers, creating a floral oasis. They even included an orchid hunter’s victorian era campsite. And the smell was truly captivating. I could have stayed in there all day. I’ll definitely be back later this summer to fully enjoy the outdoor walking trail and all of its offered beauty. They even have prepacked picnic type food & alcoholic beverages for sale in the gift shop to enjoy throughout the grounds. A must-see if you’re in the KC area looking for a nature break.
We walked through the gardens on a Friday morning in late June. Everything was just beautiful. We are in our late 60s, and found it to be a lot of walking. We appreciated the “Grasshopper” which is a small bus that is free to hop on and off of, as needed. The dinosaurs there were quite impressive! They even made noise! It was worth the one hour drive. Don’t miss the beautiful chapel, and take the kids to the fountain garden to splash in.
This was at the top of my list to visit in KC this summer. I was not disappointed. If you love gardens as I do, visit Powell Gardens as often as possible. Exhibitions change seasonally.
In my opinion, the Chapel was the star of the show. Architecture at its finest, blending in with the environment perfectly.
I loved this place and I highly recommend it.
My husband and I had our wedding ceremony and reception at Powell Gardens in April 2025.
We were primarily helped by Destiny and Wayne. Wayne gave us our tour of the gardens when we were looking for venues, and we were sold after his tour. The glass chapel is absolutely stunning, and the gardens are so well maintained that it was hard to consider any other venue. On the day of the wedding, Wayne gave the wedding party members and family members with mobility issues golf cart rides to and from the ceremony/reception. He helped keep things moving smoothly on the day of.
Destiny always responded to emails quickly and helped us plan our timeline, reception space set up, and answered all of the many questions we had!
We had our wedding reception at the Missouri Barn. The space was beautiful and worked perfectly for our needs. All in all, it was a perfect weekend and my husband and I were on cloud nine.
Loved it. So relaxing, so many vistas and vignettes. Places for kids to learn, play, and explore. So many lovely plants, birds singing. Good restroom facilities. We went on a Thursday in early June and plenty of flowers were in bloom and, from 3 to 5, not that many people there.