The garden is operated by the Chicago Horticultural Society , founded 1890, for collections, education, and research. Its ground-breaking was in 1965, with the official opening in 1972.
Today the garden contains some 2.2 million plants representing 8,310 Taxa , displayed in landscape settings. One-third of the site is devoted to horticultural display; another third is native habitats; and the remaining third is lakes and facilities. Its 26 major gardens and natural areas are as follows:
- Bulb Garden - a fine display of flowering bulbs.
- Children's Garden - garden beds for children, with evergreen Maze and Prairie garden.
- Circle Garden - a formal garden of annual flowers, with flowering trees, evergreens, and shrubs.
- Dixon Prairie - restored Prairie s (15 acres), featuring six prairie types once common to northeastern Illinois (Bur Oak Savanna , Fen Prairie, Gravel Hill Prairie, Sand Prairie, Tallgrass or Mesic Prairie, Wet Prairie).
- Dwarf Conifer Garden - dwarf and slow-growing Conifer s.
- Enabling Garden - demonstration garden for making gardening accessible to everyone.
- English Oak Meadow - a flowering sweep of bulbs, fragrant annuals, and flowering shrubs set between Asian, English, and native Oak s.
- English Walled Garden - 6 garden "rooms" in English Garden ing styles (Vista Garden, Cottage Garden, Pergola Garden, Daisy Garden, Courtyard Garden and Checkerboard Garden).
- Evening Island - 5 acres of hillside, woodland and meadow gardens in the New American Garden style, including 66,000 perennials of 66 species, along with 13,400 ornamental Grass es of 12 species.
- Fruit & Vegetable Garden - demonstration garden for edible Fruit s and Vegetable s.
- The Greenhouses - 3 Greenhouse s (semitropical, tropical, arid) designed by architect Edward L. Barnes in 1978.
- Heritage Garden - modeled after Europe 's first Botanical Garden in Padua, Italy , and divided into four quadrants highlighting the major plant families and geographic regions of the world.
- Japanese Garden - Sansho-En, "the garden of three islands," designed as a Japanese Stroll Garden with curving paths, featuring Tea Ceremonies in the Shoin Building, a recreation of a 17th-century Samurai 's retreat.
- Landscape Gardens - demonstration gardens for home landscapes, with plants hardy for the Chicago region.
- McDonald Woods - 100-acre Oak woodland, currently being restored to pre-settlement condition.
- Native Plant Garden - three distinct communities of Illinois native plants (woodland, prairie, habitat).
- Rose Garden - more than 5,000 Rose bushes.
- Sensory Garden - emphasizing scents, sounds, colors and texture.
- Shade Plant Evaluation Garden - testing area for evaluating the performance of shade-loving plants for the Chicago area.
- Spider Island - an island meadow with naturalistic plantings of trees, grasses and native wildflowers, surrounded by Birch es, Alder s and Serviceberries .
- Sun Plant Evaluation Garden - testing area for evaluating the performance of sun-loving plants for the Chicago area.
- Water Gardens - a major aquatic plant collection with more than 165,000 aquatic plants, including showy displays of Lotus es and Waterlilies , as well as 157 Taxa of native aquatic plants.
- Waterfall Garden - a 45-foot Waterfall with small pools.
- About a ten minute walk outside of the CBG grounds is the historic Skokie Lagoons.
|
