Two Ways to Preserve Our National Treasure:
One Flower Forever & Paving the Path

Download the One Flower Forever & Paving the Path Brochure and Order Forms (159K)

One Flower Forever

One Flower Forever is a program that allows everyone to give a gift that will forever honor a loved one and help preserve the Sunken Gardens. For a one-time donation of $100, one flower will be planted in honor of someone special to you at Lincoln’s Sunken Gardens and will be annually replanted in the honored person’s name ‘forever.’

One Flower Forever will help fund the purchase, planting and maintenance of one annual flower each year in perpetuity. About 28,000 annuals are planted at the Sunken Gardens each year. After our renovation campaign is completed, all One Flower Forever funds will be placed in a Sunken Gardens endowment account. Fully funded some day in the future, this fund will generate enough money each year for ongoing operations and maintenance of the gardens.

All donors receive a thank you, a commemorative certificate suitable for framing that they can present to their honoree or honoree’s family, and a flower lapel pin. Names of honorees will be recorded and permanently displayed at the newly renovated gardens.

One Flower Forever is a way for people to help support the gardens on an ongoing basis, in honor of a friend or loved one, in memory of a friend or loved one, or to celebrate events such as birthdays, anniversaries or holidays, or a random act of kindness.

All donations to One Flower Forever are tax deductible as allowed by law.

Paving the Path

The Lincoln Parks and Recreation Foundation invites you to buy a brick to support the first-ever major renovation and ongoing maintenance of the Sunken Gardens! Honor special friends or family members, celebrate graduations or weddings, or commemorate holidays by purchasing an inscribed brick to be placed in the newly renovated Sunken Gardens. Individual, family or corporation names may be inscribed on a 5.5" x 8" or 8" x 11" sized brick.

Standard Brick:
A contribution of $250 will buy you an inscribed standard-sized brick, measuring 5.5" x 8" to be placed in the Sunken Gardens.

Foundation Brick:
A contribution of $750 will buy you an inscribed larger than standard-sized brick, measuring 8" x 11" to be placed within the Sunken Gardens.

Donations are tax deductible.

For more information, call: 441-8252.

Support the Sunken Gardens of Lincoln, Nebraska Our National Treasure

• The Sunken Gardens is listed as one of the “300 Best Gardens to Visit in the U.S. and Canada” in the National Geographic Guide to American’s Public Gardens. It is the only Nebraska garden to be included in this prestigious list, and the only public annual display garden in Lincoln.
• The Sunken Gardens is a Depression-era project, built on a 1.5 acre abandoned neighborhood dumpsite. The project was part of a city program to help unemployed men earn money to buy groceries for their families and survive hard times. Crew members worked eight-hour shifts at the rate of 40 cents per hour, two days a week for a grand total of $6.40 per week.
• “I expect to make this spot the most beautiful place in the city, either in or out of the parks. The ground lends itself perfectly to the making of a sunken garden, and at the same time a spot rich in beauty, at a small expense.”
  E.M. Bair,
  Lincoln Park Superintendent,
  November 1930
• The Sunken Gardens is free and open to the public.