Chicago Botanic Garden

Chicago Botanic Garden
Chicago Botanic Garden sign off the Edens Expressway
Type	Botanical
Location	Glencoe, Illinois, United States
Coordinates	42°8′54″N 87°47′24″W
Area	385 acres (156 ha)
Opened	1972 (1972)
Owned by	Forest Preserve District of Cook County
Visitors	953,846 (2011)
Status	Open year-round
Plants	2.5 million
Website	www.chicagobotanic.org

Located at 1000 Lake Cook Road, Glencoe, Illinois, United States, the Chicago Botanic Garden is a 385-acre (156 ha) living plant museum situated on nine islands featuring 26 display gardens and surrounded by four natural habitats: McDonald Woods, Dixon Prairie, Skokie River Corridor, and Lakes and Shores. The Garden is open every day of the year. Admission is free but parking is $25 per car; free for Garden members.

The Chicago Botanic Garden is owned by the Forest Preserve District of Cook County and managed by the Chicago Horticultural Society. It opened to the public in 1972 and is home to the Joseph Regenstein, Jr. School of the Chicago Botanic Garden, offering a number of classes and certificate programs.

The Chicago Botanic Garden is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and is a member of the American Public Gardens Association (APGA).

The mission of the Chicago Botanic Garden is to promote the enjoyment, understanding and conservation of plants and the natural world.

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, and is Chicago's 7th largest cultural institution and 12th largest tourist attraction. 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 Alliance of Museums, recognizing its living collection of 2.5 million plants.

Green Roof Garden a top the Plant Science Center.

The Woman's Board of the Chicago Horticultural Society Rainwater Glen and Footbridge.

Heritage Garden in spring.

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.

Circle Garden in spring.

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 began on a redesign of the Dwarf Conifer Garden and has re-opened in 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 Walled Garden.

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 in spring.

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.”

Kleinman Family Cove – The Kleinman Family Cove, located on the Garden's North Lake along 800 feet of restored shoreline gardens is a center for teaching about the importance of water, a place to investigate aquatic plants and animals and a reservoir of water conservation information.

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.

Japanese Islands.

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.

Linden Allee in spring.

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.

Great Basin in spring.

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.

San Francisco train model at the Botanic Garden Chicago

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.

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.

Architecture

The Architecture design for Chicago Botanic Garden began with creating the master plan by with John O. Simonds and Geoffrey Rausch. There are several famous buildings that are designed by well-known architects since 1976.

1976, Education Center, Edward Larabee Barnes

1982, Japanese Garden, Koichi Kawana

1983, Heritage Garden, Geoffrey Rausch

2004, Esplande, Dan Kiley

2009, Conservation Science Center, Booth Hansen

Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Conservation Science Center

Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Conservation Science Center.

The Chicago Botanic Garden opened the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Conservation Science Center to the public on Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at the south end of the Garden. In September 2010, the Plant Science Center earned a GOLD LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating from the U.S. Green Building Council because of its sustainable design. The rating system is based on points accumulated in six major categories, including sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality, and innovation and design process. LEED standards increase initial building costs but decrease long-term operating expenses. By choosing to build this way, the Garden demonstrates its ongoing commitment to sustainable building and development practices.

The Plant Science Center provides laboratories and teaching facilities for more than 200 Ph.D. scientists, land managers, students, and interns whose research is critical to fulfilling the Garden’s efforts to save our planet by saving our plants. The 38,000-square-foot (3,500 m²) Plant Science Center also serves as home to a unique doctoral program in plant biology and conservation with Northwestern University and is US headquarters for Botantic Garden's Conservation International (BGCI), underscoring the Garden’s international efforts in plant conservation. A viewing gallery and the 16,000-square-foot (1,500 m²) Green Roof Garden are open to the public, giving nearly 950,000 visitors and schoolchildren each year the opportunity to view plant science firsthand.

The Garden’s 35 plant conservation and botany scientists address threats to endangered flora, train plant conservation leaders and research plant conservation policy. Programs and research focus on the collection, evaluation, introduction and preservation of plants within the context of threats such as climate change, global warming and human impacts.

The Chicago Botanic Garden conserves rare plant species, and is working with regional, national and international organizations on behalf of plant conservation. The Garden is a partner in the Seeds of Success project, a branch of the Millennium Seed Bank Project managed by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The goal is to collect 10,000 seeds from each of 1,500 native species of the Midwest for conservation and restoration efforts. The Garden is also a partner in the Plants of Concern initiative to monitor rare species in Northeastern Illinois.

The Garden is a member of Chicago Wilderness, a consortium of 200 local institutions dedicated to preserving and restoring Chicago’s natural areas, as well as the Center for Plant Conservation, a group of 30 other botanic gardens and arboreta committed to conserving rare plants from their region.

In trial and demonstration gardens, indoor greenhouses and laboratories located in the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Resource Center, Garden horticulturists test plants to determine those that are best-suited for local gardens.

In 2001, in partnership with The Federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Chicago Botanic Garden's Division of Plant Science and Conservation launched a mentoring program that trains and employs science graduates from a wide variety of fields to assist land managers with their huge task of preserving and protecting our public lands. Since then, the National Park Service (NPS) and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) have also become valued partners.

Through this partnership, approximately 100 biologists and graduates from universities across the country receive five-month paid CLM internships to assist professional staff at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), National Park Service (NPS), or U.S. Forest Service (USFS). Internships are primarily located in one of the 13 western states, including Alaska. These internships involve work in botany or wildlife-related fields, or combinations that may include monitoring or assessing threatened and endangered species and habitats.

Joseph Regenstein, Jr., School of the Chicago Botanic Garden

The School began as an education program in 1990 with a series of classes for adult learners. It has grown into a premier academic institution offering more than 400 classes annually. In 1997, the School of the Chicago Botanic Garden was opened to create more opportunities for students to learn about plants and the natural world. Renamed in 2003 and rededicated in 2006, the Joseph Regenstein, Jr. School of the Chicago Botanic Garden offers adult education classes in the fields of horticulture, garden design, plant science, botanical arts, nature and ecology studies, and ethnobotany.

Degree Programs offered at the School of the Chicago Botanic Garden:

L.E.A.P. Ph.D. Program – Landscapes, Ecological and Anthropogenic Processes (LEAP) is a Ph.D. program offered by the University of Illinois at Chicago in partnership with the Chicago Botanic Garden. Launched in 2005, the program fosters understanding of ecological processes in human-altered landscapes. The goal is to understand how human activities relate to the native species of plants and animals.

University of Chicago Committee on Evolutionary Biology Ph.D. Program – The Ecology and Evolution Group at UIC is engaged in research ranging from studies of ecosystems and community function to the processes and patterns of evolutionary change. The graduate program area in Ecology and Evolution offers a comprehensive curriculum that emphasizes original research and prepares students for research, teaching, and curatorial careers in academic, governmental, and industrial settings. Opportunities for student research range from theoretical to applied questions and from laboratory research to field studies at local and international sites.

University of Illinois Chicago Ecology & Evolution Group Ph.D. Program - The Committee on Evolutionary Biology (CEB) was established in 1968. Since then, CEB has provided a means for Ph.D. students to pursue interdisciplinary research that does not readily fall within a single department’s purview. CEB students have access to field sites, equipment (GPS, laptops, digitizers, cameras), laboratories, research funds for pilot work, and an exceptional range of scientific and technical expertise. The program usually includes 25–30 Ph.D. students at one time. It has produced over 100 graduates who are now working around the world in universities, museums, zoos, and governmental and non-governmental agencies.

Certificate programs offered at the School of the Chicago Botanic Garden:

• Photography

• Horticultural Therapy

• Midwest Gardening

• Professional Gardener

• Garden Design

• Botanical Arts

• Healthcare Garden Design

• Ornamental Plant Materials

Green Youth Farm

The Green Youth Farm program offers students the opportunity to learn all aspects of organic farming — from planting seeds and starts to managing a hive of bees, from cooking with the food they grow to selling it at farmstands and markets (and to the Garden Café, where the chef incorporates the fresh organic produce into many menu items available to Chicago Botanic Garden visitors).

Students are paid a stipend for four hours per week in the spring and fall and 20 hours per week in the summer working at the farms, but the benefits they gain far outweigh the wages they earn. By the end of the season, participants have learned how to work together as a team, gained valuable job skills, discovered a whole new way to look at the food they eat, and grown their support system to include supervisors, program coordinators, legislators, and their fellow participants.

Green Youth Farm has locations in North Chicago, North Lawndale and Washington Park. A Jr. Green Youth Farm is located at Reavis Elementary School in Chicago.

Windy City Harvest

Windy City Harvest provides instruction in urban agriculture best practices, develops collaborations that benefit communities, and produces high-value, nutritious produce that is sold at retail outlets and made available and affordable for local residents.

Participants acquire hands-on experience with sustainable vegetable production and learn essential business skills, including planning, pricing, sales, and marketing.

Students receive six months of hands-on instruction in greenhouse and outdoor growing practices, followed by a three-month paid internship. Up to five graduates will be hired by the Chicago Botanic Garden into five-month paid apprenticeships and will work toward an additional certificate in cool-weather growing techniques in hoophouses and greenhouses.

After satisfactory completion of the curriculum and training requirements, students achieve certification in sustainable urban horticulture and urban agriculture. The certificate from the Richard J. Daley College readies participants for permanent employment in the new “green collar” jobs sector.

Cook County Sheriff's Vocational Rehabilitation Impact Center

Windy City Harvest also operates a production and training garden, an alternative one-acre sentencing facility for young men. Employment has been shown to be powerful in reducing recidivism among ex-offenders, and through its partnership Windy City Harvest has developed a progression of opportunities for this population, including an eight- week residential garden program at the VRIC, paid transitional jobs for selected graduates, and certification in environmental literacy for green jobs. Graduates of the VRIC residential garden program are encouraged to apply to the Windy City Harvest certificate program.

World Environment Day

In 2008, the Chicago Botanic Garden was chosen by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as the sole North American host for World Environment Day with the theme, "CO₂—Kick the Habit! Towards a Low Carbon Economy."

Over thirty non-profit, academic, cultural and environmental organizations participated in the "Knowledge and Action Marketplace" on the Garden's Esplanade. Displays and representatives discussed products to help green homes, local carpools, volunteer and community conservation programs, classes on green gardening, the use of CFL light bulbs, vehicles that run on used vegetable oil and even appliances that pop popcorn using solar energy.

Organizations participating in the event included the Center for Neighborhood Technology, offering car-sharing information; CNT Energy, working with ComEd to provide information about Watt Spot, a program to assist homeowners who want to pay market price for electricity. Northern Illinois Energy Project, provided free CFL bulbs. Chicago Wilderness and Openlands, provided information about local conservation and restoration programs and Horrigan Urban Forest Products highlighted the best uses for reclaimed wood from urban trees.

The Garden hosted its first International Climate Change Forum on that day, featuring national and international experts including Dr. Ashok Khosla, former Chairman on the UNEP; Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund; Mary Grade, former Regional Administrator for EPA region 5; Suzanne Malec-McKenna, Commissioner of the Department of the Environment for the City of Chicago; John Rowe, Chief Executive Officer of the Exelon Corporation; Arthur J. Gibson, Vice President of Environment, Health & Safety for Baxter International and Arthur Armishaw, Chief Technology and Services Officer for HSBC-North America.

Entries from UNEP’s International Children’s Painting Competition were exhibited throughout June at the greenhouse galleries, located in the Regenstein Center. More than 700 entries were received from which the first and second place North American winners were selected. Chicago-area and North American winners were featured.

On June 5 of each year the Garden and other venues around the world, highlight resources and initiatives that promote low carbon economies and lifestyles, such as improved energy efficiency, alternative energy sources, forest conservation, and eco-friendly consumption.

Sustainability

The first generation of sustainable gardens at the Chicago Botanic Garden were the victory gardens of World Wars I and II. Today’s gardens incorporate food and paper scrap composting, sustainable irrigation, and a minimal use of fertilizer and pesticides. The Chicago Botanic Garden also encourage others to garden sustainably by composting food waste, installing backyard rain barrels, using native plants, removing invasive species, and establishing perennials. The Windy City Harvest program offers workshops in sustainable urban horticulture and urban agriculture.

In 2010, the Corporate Roundtable on Sustainability was established to encourage companies to act sustainably.

Project BudBurst

Project BudBurst is a nationwide initiative to help scientists understand the effects of climate change on plants by recording the timing of leafing, flowering, and fruiting (also known as phenological events), of a variety of plant species. The project started as a three-month pilot program in 2007. Thousands of observations have been amassed in subsequent years from students, gardeners, and others citizen scientists in all 50 states. When combined with other studies on insects, birds, and other pollinators, Project BudBurst aims to help scientists measure asynchronous plant-pollinator activities in light of climate change.

Project BudBurst is co-managed by the National Ecological Observatory Network, Inc. (NEON) and the Chicago Botanic Garden. It is funded by the National Ecological Observatory Network and the National Geographic Education Foundation.

More information about Project BudBurst at http://www.neoninc.org/budburst/index.php

Honors and Awards

In 2006, the Chicago Botanic Garden received the Award for Garden Excellence, given yearly by the APGA and Horticulture magazine to a public garden that exemplifies the highest standards of horticultural practices and has shown a commitment to supporting and demonstrating best gardening practices.

The American Planning Association selects "Great Places" in the United States annually in order to offer good choices for people to work and to live. These places represent high standards in aspects such as "true sense of place, cultural and historical interest." The Chicago Botanic Garden was selected as a Great Place (Public Space) in 2012 because of providing food locally, excellence in design, education and outreach, and sustainability.

Notes

• http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-02-01/features/ct-prj-0203-patient-art-of-bonsai-20130201_1_bonsai-trees-bonsai-master-ivan-watters
• http://deerfield.suntimes.com/news/10256211-418/chicago-botanic-garden-has-a-good-year.html
• http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/travel/tourism-leisure/gardens-parks/chicago-botanic-garden-PLCUL000132.topic

See also

• List of botanical gardens in the United States
• List of Museums and Cultural Institutions in Chicago
• Morton Arboretum
• North American Plant Collections Consortium

External links

• Official website
• Chicago Botanic Garden Photo Contest
• Chicago Botanic Garden Video Blog
• Chicago Botanic Garden on Twitter
• Chicago Botanic Garden on Facebook
• Chicago Botanic Garden's channel on YouTube
• ChicagoBotanicGarden on Flickr
• Forest Preserve District of Cook County