McCrory Gardens | Brookings

Spread across nearly 70 acres on the campus of South Dakota State University in Brookings, McCrory Gardens is one of the state’s most beautiful horticultural destinations-a living showcase of the Northern Plains’ natural beauty and plant diversity. With its lush gardens, shaded pathways, and carefully designed landscapes, it offers both education and pure enjoyment to visitors throughout the changing seasons.

A Garden Rooted in Research and Beauty

Founded in the 1960s and named for Samuel McCrory, a pioneering horticulture professor at SDSU, the gardens were envisioned as both a research site and a public sanctuary. Today, they continue that dual role-serving as an arboretum, teaching space, and public attraction-where scientific study meets the simple pleasure of walking among flowers. Every path, bed, and grove is carefully designed to showcase plants that thrive in South Dakota’s often challenging climate.

Landscapes and Thematic Gardens

The grounds include more than 25 individual gardens, each with its own mood and focus. Visitors can wander through the Formal Garden, laid out with symmetrical beds and flowering borders, or pause in the Rose Garden, where the scent of blooms lingers in the warm summer air. The Perennial Garden shifts colors through the year-iris and peonies in spring, black-eyed Susans and coneflowers in midsummer, asters and ornamental grasses in the fall.

The Arboretum, spanning 45 acres, complements the formal gardens with stands of oaks, maples, evergreens, and native prairie plants. Trails weave between groves and meadows alive with butterflies, songbirds, and the rustling of tall grass in the breeze. Every corner feels like a transition between cultivated beauty and natural prairie rhythm.

A Place for Learning and Community

McCrory Gardens also functions as a horticultural research center, testing plant varieties and promoting sustainable landscaping. Interpretive signs throughout the park explain plant names, origins, and ecological importance, making each visit subtly educational. The Education & Visitor Center, with its airy glass atrium and seasonal exhibits, often hosts gardening workshops, family programs, and community events such as outdoor concerts and plant sales.

Through the Seasons

Spring at McCrory Gardens bursts into color with tulips, crabapple blossoms, and emerging greenery. Summer fills the paths with lush blooms and the faint hum of pollinators. In autumn, the gardens turn golden, and the arboretum’s trees blaze with crimson and orange. Even in winter, the snow-covered walkways and frost-dusted evergreens offer a calm, sculptural beauty that feels serene and timeless.

In a Few Words

McCrory Gardens is more than a botanical display-it’s a living portrait of the Northern Plains, combining science, art, and tranquility in one harmonious landscape. Whether you’re exploring with a camera, learning about native species, or simply sitting beneath a tree to watch the light shift through the leaves, it’s the kind of place that invites you to slow down and reconnect with the natural rhythm of South Dakota’s seasons.