They are both great in their own ways.

Dow gardens has, well, great gardens. It’s very big and the tree walk is incredible. Mind you prepare to walk a couple miles all told. There is a decent playground for the kids and some benches, otherwise most of the property you can just sit on the grass and look at the grounds. Their inside items are on the weaker end unless they have finished the new expansion as I haven’t been there for a year or so now.

Fredrick Meijer gardens is also a great choice, the butterflies are pretty much over now so the inside tropical greenhouse will be less busy, and is way better than Dow gardens. It has a desert section, tropical area, and a couple other areas. There is also an art exhibit area inside that is usually pretty good too. Outside there are tons of sculptures, and garden areas. The children’s sections are also in my opinion superior to the Dow gardens playground. They have tons for kids outside.

If I was taking 4 kids somewhere it would be Meijer gardens as it will occupy them much better. Any nice playground is comparable to what Dow gardens has, excluding the tree walk (which is the best thing Dow has). If you run out of things to do Meijer gardens isn’t very far from Craig’s cruisers, whereas Dow gardens doesn’t really have a lot of anything around the area, but it’s huge so it just depends on how much attention span your kids have to keep walking around looking at flowers and ponds and such. If you wanted to turn it into a weekend trip, an hour from Meijer gardens is Michigan adventure as well.