The is a 385 acre (1.56 km&2) Botanical Garden in Glencoe, Illinois . It is located within the Cook County Forest Preserve District , a belt of more than 68,000 acres (275 km&2) of open space that surrounds the city of Chicago , Illinois . It is open daily except Christmas Day. Admission is free; however, there is a substantial fee for parking a Motor Vehicle ($15.00 as of 2007). The gardens can also be reached using the Pace route #213 and Braeside Station on the Metra UP North Line is within easy walking distance. More than 750,000 entrants visited the garden in 2005.
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. The address of the garden is 1000 Lake Cook Road, Glencoe IL 60022.
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 23 major gardens and natural areas are as follows:
- - a fine display of flowering bulbs.
- - a formal garden of annual flowers, with flowering trees, evergreens, and shrubs.
- - 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 and slow-growing Conifer s.
- - demonstration garden for making gardening accessible to everyone.
- - a flowering sweep of bulbs, fragrant annuals, and flowering shrubs set between Asian, English, and native Oak s.
- - 6 garden "rooms" in English Garden ing styles (Vista Garden, Cottage Garden, Pergola Garden, Daisy Garden, Courtyard Garden and Checkerboard Garden).
- - 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. Evening Island also houses the Theodore C. Butz Memorial Carillon .
- - 3 Greenhouse s (semitropical, tropical, arid) designed by architect Edward L. Barnes in 1978.
- - 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.
- - demonstration gardens for home landscapes, with plants hardy for the Chicago region.
- - 100-acre restored Oak woodland.
- - three distinct communities of Illinois native plants (woodland, prairie, habitat).
- - more than 5,000 Rose bushes.
- - emphasizing scents, sounds, colors and texture.
- - testing area for evaluating the performance of shade-loving plants for the Chicago area.
- - an island meadow with naturalistic plantings of trees, grasses and native wildflowers, surrounded by Birch es, Alder s and Serviceberries .
- - testing area for evaluating the performance of sun-loving plants for the Chicago area.
- - 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.
- About a ten minute walk outside of the CBG grounds is the Skokie River and CCC-excavated Skokie Lagoons.
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