Chicago Botanic Garden - Garden Facts

Garden Facts

The Chicago Botanic Garden is one of the United States' most visited public gardens and a center for learning and scientific research. Nearly one million people visit the Garden annually. It has a membership of 50,000, the largest of any U.S. public garden. More than 2,000 volunteers assist with all aspects of the Garden’s mission, from planting and propagating natural areas, to teaching educational programs and staffing public programs and exhibitions. The Chicago Botanic Garden is only one of 17 public gardens accredited by the American Association of Museums, recognizing its living collection of 2.5 million plants.

The 25 display gardens and four natural habitats include:

The Aquatic Garden – This garden shows plants that grow in water through winding boardwalks over the lake. There are 31 varieties of water lilies and nine varieties of lotus in bloom during the summer and early fall. The plants are all hardy to the Chicago and Midwest.

Bonsai Collection – This collection is regarded by bonsai experts as one of the best public collections in the world. It includes 200 bonsai in twenty-seven styles and more than 60 kinds of plants, including evergreen, deciduous, tropical, flowering and fruiting trees.

The Bulb Garden – contains over 75,000 bulbs, including rare and unusual varieties.

The Grunsfeld Children’s Growing Garden – Budding gardeners and future scientists "learn by doing" in the Grunsfeld Children's Growing Garden as they water, weed, and harvest plants, guided by expert instructors in the sort of hands-on learning that makes a lasting impression. On weekends during the summer, families can enjoy drop-in activities there, growing closer together as they get closer to nature.

The Circle Garden – This 18,000-square-foot (1,700 m2) garden displays annuals suited for a typical Midwest garden. At the center of the Circle Garden is a fountain with 32 cascading plumes of water.

Crescent Garden – Composed of concentric tiers shaped by hundreds of evergreen boxwoods, the Crescent Garden changes its planting beds every season.

Dwarf Conifer Garden – This garden contains rare species such as one of the largest weeping Norway spruces in the Midwest, a 30-year-old thread leaf false cypress, and a Horstmann’s Silberlocke Korean fir. Work has begun on a redesign of the Dwarf Conifer Garden and is scheduled to re-open in June 2008.

Enabling Garden – This 11,000-square-foot (1,000 m2) garden shows structures, tools, techniques and programming to help people, of any age or ability, garden. The Enabling Garden features plantings that stimulate the senses, displays of adapted tools, hanging baskets on pulleys, vertical gardens that increase the ease of gardening, and planting beds and containers raised for comfortable reach.

English Oak Meadow – Each year the English Oak Meadow features native and exotic annuals. The gently sloping hillside, with its fragrant annuals under a collection of oaks, serves as a natural division between the Dwarf Conifer and English Walled Gardens.

English Walled Garden – Six English gardening styles are showcased in the English Walled Garden. This garden features more than 50,000 herbaceous and woody plants, with columns, fountains, runs and other garden ornamentation.

Esplanade – The 2.8-acre (1.1 ha) Esplanade is a new garden and plaza with public spaces and intimate areas. Its landscape provides a view of the Garden’s northernmost lake as well as fountains, waterspouts and pools.

Evening Island – Evening Island was designed in the “New American Garden” style to display the expanding horticultural collections of the Chicago Botanic Garden. The style is categorized by sweeping use of perennials and ornamental grasses. In the center of the island stands the Butz Memorial Carillon, whose tones signal the hour and provide summertime music.

Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Garden – This is the largest display garden of its kind in the Midwest. The nearly 4-acre (1.6 ha) garden features displays, as well as education facilities and exhibits.

Great Basin & Water Gardens – The Water Gardens ring the Great Basin Lake and contain a major aquatic plant collection of 114,000 aquatic plants.

Greenhouses – There are Tropical, Semi-tropical and Arid. They feature 9,000 exotic plants with informational displays.

The Green Roof - Located on top of the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Conservation Science Center, the Ellis Goodman Family Foundation Green Roof Garden South features regional and national native plants, many of which are not currently used as rooftop plants; the Josephine P. & John J. Louis Foundation Green Roof Garden North features a mix of plants known as good green roof plants, plus native and exotic plants that have potential for green roof use. Generally, the plants are sun loving, drought tolerant, have a shallow root system, and can withstand windy conditions.

Heritage Garden – This garden provides visitors with an introduction to the history garden and plant nomenclature. It is a replica of Europe’s first botanic garden in Padua, Italy, and is divided into four quadrants each representing one of the four corners of the earth. The beds contain plant families ranging from the fern family (one of the least complex), to the aster family (one of the most complex). The focal point of the garden is a sculpture of Carl Linnaeus, the Swedish botanist and taxonomist known as “the father of botany.”

Lakeside Garden – The Lakeside Gardens cover a total of 2 ¼ acres and encircle the Great Basin Lake. They comprise a major collection of flowering trees, shrubs and perennials.

Landscape Gardens – This garden features eight garden styles and settings, to demonstrate how different types of landscape can thrive in Midwest gardens. It features the rock, traditional border, cool color/stream, ericaceous and easy-to-grow gardens, as well as the formal, informal and fragrant herb gardens.

Elizabeth Hubert Malott Japanese Garden – Also called Sansho-En (the Garden of Three Islands). It is designed in Japanese style with over 280 types of plants conducive to gardening in the Midwest. It is a four-season garden with curving paths and pruned trees, framing distant views of lakes, grassy hills, woods and gardens beyond. The three islands are Keiunto, Seifuto and Horaijima.

Mary Mix McDonald Woods – This is the Chicago Botanic Garden’s 100-acre (40 ha) naturally occurring oak woodland community of plants and animals, restored for the public to experience some of the native communities that once covered the Midwest. The woods include numerous plant communities such as wetland depressions, a small prairie remnant, a wooded moraine and savanna areas.

The Plant Evaluation Gardens – The Chicago Botanic Garden staff evaluate more than 7,200 plants each year for bloom size, color, cold hardiness and disease and pest resistance. The results provide information and resources for the scientific and professional community, as well as for Midwest gardeners.

Suzanne S. Dixon Prairie – six prairies that represent the native prairies once common to northeastern Illinois, each with its own topography, soil conditions and native plant species:

• Black earth and plants taller than 8 feet (2.4 m) are characteristic of the tallgrass or mesic prairie that once dominated Illinois.
• The bur oak savanna is an open grassland prairie that incorporates clusters of native bur oak trees and the flowering plants growing around them.
• The sand prairie is a re-creation of the type of prairie found naturally at the southwestern end of Lake Michigan, where the shoreline encompasses low dunes with a marshy habitat sited between them.
• The steep, sloped gravel hill prairie is a dry, exceptionally well-drained area with slightly sandy or gravelly soil. Plants found here are lower to the ground and flower earlier than tallgrass varieties.
• The wet prairie is located close to the water’s edge and contains plants well suited to a marsh setting.
• The fen prairie is a re-creation of an unusual wetland where the water contains a high degree of mineral salts leached from underground limestone.

Native Plant Garden – This garden encompasses three areas: a woodland garden that displays native plants preferring part shade, from tall trees to spring ephemerals; a prairie garden, featuring sun-loving native prairie plants; and a habitat garden, which features native plants for bird and butterfly nesting and food sources.

Model Railroad Garden – This outdoor exhibition takes visitors from coast to coast with model trains, miniature representations of America’s best-loved landmarks, and small-scale gardens. The 7,500-square-foot (700 m2) Model Railroad Garden features 16 garden scale trains on 1,600 feet (490 m) of track. The buildings have been handcrafted with natural materials, including twigs, bark, leaves, acorns and pebbles. The landscape is made up of over 5,000 tiny trees, shrubs, groundcovers and flowering plants in 250 varieties. This garden is open from mid-May to late October.

Krasberg Rose Garden – Visitors entering this garden will see 50,000 plants representing 367 rose varieties, all hardy and well –suited for growing in the Chicago area. The only informal, free form rose garden of its kind in the United States, the collection is the largest in the Midwest.

Sensory Garden – This garden appeals to more than just the eyes with plantings of color, fragrance, form and texture. Visitors can touch the soft, fuzzy, silver-gray leaves of a lamb’s ear plant, enjoy the smell of a butterfly bush, and hear the distinctive rustle and pop of a saw tooth oak tree.

Skokie River – The Skokie River Corridor is a living laboratory to explore concepts of biodiversity, ecology, landscape and aesthetics. It is located along the western edge of the Chicago Botanic Garden, surrounding the one-mile (1.6 km) stretch of the Skokie River. The area includes 197 native plant species, all of local origin, growing in and along the river, including 32 sedge and 22 grass species.

Spider Island – This island offers a secluded space for contemplation, with dramatic water views. Ringed by birches, alders and serviceberries, a meadow of native plants, including bottlebrush grass, black-eyed Susan and purple coneflower, is at the heart of the garden. Along the islands shore grow 20 species of water plants such as blue flag iris, lizard’s tail and pickerelweed.

Waterfall Garden – This garden has 10–12 foot falls with water tumbling into small pools at the base of each drop. Paths and bridges enable visitors to walk to the top of the waterfall.