The Memorial Grove lives again, purposely, to honor the people killed senselessly in the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

The garden, planted last fall, is a renovation of the original Memorial Grove honoring the 168 bombing victims. It was designed by CLS & Associates Landscape Architects — Connie Scothorn and Brian Patric — who employed their specialty:

Landscape design using plants native to Oklahoma.

“Who says native plants are not attractive?” Scothorn wondered. “Or that they look weedy, messy or desert-like?”

Well, no one who’s looked.

“We have been trying to spread the word that native plants can be equally as attractive as plants that originated in Japan, India and China. This garden does that beautifully,” Scothorn said, noting that the flowers support pollinators, which are in decline.

The Memorial Grove was donated to the state of Oklahoma by the state of Iowa not long after the bombing. Scothorn said the trees suffered in recent years and finally succumbed to a gas leak.

The Oklahoma Office of Management & Enterprise Services authorized the redesign and construction. Grooms Irrigation won the contract to install the project.

“This project is a great tribute to those lost and those changed forever,” Patric said. “I am very proud and honored to have worked on this project and I will be excited to see it evolve over the years.”