Gardens at Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee

Heritage flower gardens at old cemeteries are worth a visit for the peaceful surroundings dotted with historic memorials and old growth woods where one can pay respects to founders of an era. Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee is a historic Wisconsin landmark that has all these characteristics with an eye to the future.

Heritage Flower Gardens

Located in Milwaukee is Forest Home Cemetery created in 1850. The 200-acre garden cemetery is an oasis bordered by urban residential streets on all sides. The massive deciduous and evergreen trees, at times referred to as old growth woods, will immediately strike visitors. Many of the trees are labeled with botanical and common names, including young trees just planted.

Trees, shrubs and flowering Victorian gardens were planted in the1800s when going to the local cemetery was a family outing. Today, the winding roads and footpaths take visitors past the fountains, family memorials and the trees and flower gardens still there. Remnants like old water spigots are reminders of a time when people brought live flowers to plant around their loved-ones gravesites.

Historic Memorials to Milwaukee’s Founders

German beer barons and ‚”wurstmachers” were some of the first influences in Milwaukee. Jacob Best who set up a brewery and distillery later known as Pabst Brewing Company and Fred Usinger, who emigrated from Germany in 1881 and died in 1930, have memorials at Forest Home Cemetery.

Charles Frederick Pfister, known for the Victorian 1893 Pfister Hotel still on Wisconsin Avenue in Milwaukee’s downtown, and actors, Lynn Fontane and Alfred Lunt are also memorialized here.

Three greenhouses, circa 1900s, located on the cemetery grounds stands as another type of monument to the past. These glass houses grew many of the flowers planted on the property years ago.

Victory Garden at Forest Home Cemetery

In Silent City: A History of Forest Home Cemetery, author John Gurda recounts the victory garden planted at Forest Home Cemetery during World War II. The vegetable garden became a source of fresh food to the cemetery’s employees at a time of great need.

Today, an organization called Growing Power has entered into an agreement with Forest Home Cemetery to renovate the greenhouses to grow edible plants. Although fresh food will not be sold directly from Forest Home Cemetery, grocers like the Outpost, Natural Food and many area farmers markets will carry the crops harvested.

In years past, the greenhouses had become economically unsustainable. Today, Growing Power is using aquaponics to heat the greenhouses allowing them to be used once again.

Forest Home Cemetery is popular for teachers and students learning about plants in Milwaukee. It is not unusual to see school groups walking the grounds to talk about plants flourishing at this historic Wisconsin landmark. Flower gardens at memorial parks are worth considering; like botanical gardens much can be learned from these public gardens.