The first name you come across on the path is “Bruce H. Fisher Papa Bear 46-04.” In front of his name stood giant elephant leaves. The leaves are big enough that I could wrap one around my head. They have a feel of a plastic, like the fake plants that you can buy from the store. They have every shade of green in them, but there was mostly a dominant light green tint. When you move in closer, the leaves have little bulging veins all over them. They look as if they are made of marble, except they are green. Each of these enormous leaves is attached to a long dark purple stem. The stems are soft and have a rubbery feel to them. When you bend them, they spring back into place. There is only one leaf to a stem. The leaves are clustered in groups of 10 to 30 leaves in a group. They have a strange and unknown smell, but it seems so familiar to me.
After taking a close look at the elephant plants, I moved further along the path and came across the name “Laura Marie Peterson.” In front of her name was a small pink flower. This flower had hot pink petals. When I touched them, they felt like they had little whiskers on them like my cat Smokey. On the inside of the flower is a dark brick red inner circle. On the innermost part of the flower is a little ball of yellow, which looked like a little fuzz ball. The flower could fit in the palm of my hand. There were only a few of these delicate flowers. These flowers shared their glory with a purple plant that sat below them. This purple plant is very small, no higher than my shin. The plant had a shade of royal purple to it. The leaves on it are folded in half and look like little birds soaring through the air. They have a feel of rubber like the gloves doctors wear before performing surgery. They have a smell of sweet plums.
As I moved along the path some more I came across the brick “In loving memory Laurie D. Fritzer.” In front of her name are morbid looking plants. There are no other ones like it in the whole garden. They look like giant weeds. In the mix of all the colors in the garden, these bland white and sickly green plants sit out of place, yet no other plant could have sat in the same location. The white on the leaves makes it look like they have been frosted over. They have the feel of a scruffy beard that needs a good shave. They have the smell old wilted leaves, like the ones you rake up in your yard in the fall. Once you get over the feel and look of these deathly weeds, they begin to grow on you. You can see their role in the garden.As I walked farther, I came across the name “The Reed Family.” In front of their name stood a motionless pond with only the ripples of swimming fish coming to the surface. Beautiful periwinkle lilacs surround the pond. The lilacs create a fence around the pond to separate it form the garden. In the pond, there were giant stones and large Koi fish. Above the water were lily pads and a single white flower. This white flower looked lonely. It was sticking out of the pond magically. It had a long green stem and the flower had white petals. The flower swayed back and forth as the fish swam near it. This was probably the most interesting flower because it was not in an ordinary flowerbed or any other planter. The flower just sat in the middle of the pond.
As I moved on, I found the last name on the path “Carry and Mary Arth, Laura, Susie, Bill.” The first thing I noticed on this path was a bed of flowers with the colors white, purple, and gold. These flowers all felt damp, like it had just rained. The colors of the petals were at extremes of each of the colors. There was a very bright purple that looked surreal in the sun. Then there was a blinding white that made me feel ashamed when I touched it, like I was going to get it dirty. The gold looked as if it was touched by King Midas himself. This bed looked different in the garden because there were so many colors in one place. In the rest of the garden the colors were broken up, but here they were in one outstanding group. These flowers have an extreme smell just like the colors. My nose started to tingle like I was going to sneeze. I could almost taste the pollen.
As I walked on, I came across a statue that was named “Rebecca at the well.” Next to the name were baby blue flowers with yellow centers. These flowers were tiny. The petals were the size of the fingernail on my thumb. The baby blue flowers had the smell of fresh water, because they grew in the middle of a waterfall. The flowers sat on large boulders alongside the fall. They looked as if they were on a high mountain in the middle of a large open plateau. These flowers made me feel like I was in another place, like in the countryside near a river. I jumped the gate surrounding the waterfall to feel the little flowers. They had a feel of red velvet, like the red shoes my little sister use to wear.The sunken gardens are a great asset to Lincoln. The gardens may have no practical use, but it is filled with exploration and wonder. You can see teenagers getting their senior pictures done, an old couple taking a stroll looking at the plants, and newly weds giving their vows to each other. These are just some of the few uses of the gardens.
I use the gardens to find peace for myself. The gardens are a great symbol of who we are as a state. The gardens are filled with so many different things, but they all come together to form something beautiful. The gardens show all of the people of Nebraska as individuals. The flowers are a representation of the people they sit next to on the path. Each brick signifies an individual. Each flower has its own characteristics that make it stand out from the rest. Some flowers smell sweet. Some have an old wilted smell. The flowers in the garden make me question what is real beauty. While the morbid looking plants are not my favorite, they are beautiful in their own way.
Everyone one of the persons listed on the bricks has his or her own distinct identity. Some people are short. Some people are tall. People from all races can come and live together just like the flowers in this garden no matter what they look like or how they fit in. We can all find our role in the garden of life.
