2026 Red White & bloom
water garden tour
Across the country, Americans are planning unique and exciting ways to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence of the United States.
The Greater Kansas City Water Garden Society will join in celebrating America’s 250th anniversary with our 2026 Red, White, and Bloom Tour. The tour will be on three different Saturdays in July and August. Each Saturday tour will feature up to 12 water gardens located in a relatively small geographic area. Each Saturday tour runs from 9 am to 5 pm.
Tour tickets are $15/person and ae good for all three tour days. Tickets include a tour book with maps, addresses, and host-written garden descriptions.
Water gardens on the tour vary from small & basic to large & very elaborate in design. Many incorporate streams, waterfalls, attractive landscapes, trains, and rain gardens. Most tour sites are private gardens that are only open to the public during the water garden tour. Other tour sites feature WGS constructed water features at nature centers and other non-profit locations.
Proceeds from the tour support WGS public service activity, including building and maintaining water gardens at schools and other non-profit locations, public education, and our fish rescue program.
The tour has expanded to include local visual artists who will be at various locations throughout the tour. See our Facebook page for specific artist locations.
Tour Dates & Locations
Tour #1 – July 25 – Missouri South
Tour 1 covers Jackson and Cass counties, including Kansas City, Missouri and the communities of Raytown, Independence, Sugar Creek, Blue Springs, Lee’s Summit, Grandview, Peculiar, Belton, Raymore, Pleasant Hill, Lone Jack, Lake Winnebago and surrounding areas.
Tour #2 – August 8 – Kansas and Missouri North of I-70
Tour 2 covers both Kansas north of I-70 and Missouri north of the Missouri River, including Wyandotte County KS & Platte and Clay Counties, Kansas City, KS, and the communities of Lansing, Leavenworth, and surrounding areas and the communities of Liberty, Kearney, Smithville, North Kansas City, Weatherby Lake, Parkville, Riverside and surrounding areas.
Tour #3 – August 15 – Kansas South of I-70
Tour 3 covers Johnson and Miami counties and the communities of Westwood, Prairie Village, Mission, Mission Hills, Merriam, Fairway, Shawnee, Lenexa, Leawood, Overland Park, Olathe, Louisburg, and surrounding areas.
Tickets
Tickets for the tour are $15 per person 14 years and older. Children younger than 14 may participate for free.
Electronic tickets are available on Eventbrite. A link to the Eventbrite ticket is below.
Physical tickets will be available about June 1 at
- Most Hen House Markets
- many locally-owned lawn and garden retailers.
A list of physical ticket locations is at the the link below.
The Water Garden Society gratefully acknowledges the support of these retailers who sell tour tickets as a service to the area gardening community.
The 2026 Red White & Bloom tour book contains maps and descriptions for all sites on the 2026 tour. An electronic version is available at the link below.
Many tour visitors use navigation features on their mobile phones to navigate from one tour site to the next. The tour ticket book has QR codes for each location. Scanning that QR code will hlep you navigate from whereever you are to the site you desire to visit.
Notice: Some physical ticket books have an error. The site owner’s names and descriptions for sites 2-D and 2-E are transposed. Both sites are on tour at the addresses listed. The electronic version of the ticket book linked above has been corrected. We apologize for any confusion this may cause.
Summer water garden tours are the society’s yearly fundraising activity. The money raised by the 2026 tour will sustain the society and our community service projects for 2026 and beyond. The WGS would like to sincerely thank every one of our tour participants for their support this summer.