The Chicago Botanic Garden is a living plant museum situated on nine islands in the

Cook County Cook County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, California. More than 40% of all residents of Illinois live within Cook County. As of 20 ...

Forest Preserves. It features 27 display gardens in four natural habitats: McDonald Woods, Dixon Prairie, Skokie River Corridor, and Lakes and Shores. The garden is open every day of the year. An admission fee has been approved to start in 2022, not to exceed $35. The Chicago Botanic Garden is owned by the

Forest Preserve District of Cook County The Forest Preserve District of Cook County is a governmental commission in Cook County, Illinois, that owns and manages a network of open spaces, containing forest, prairie, wetland, streams, and lakes, that are mostly set aside as natural areas ...

, 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 American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

and is a member of the

American Public Gardens Association The American Public Gardens Association, formerly the American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta, is an association of public-garden institutions and professionals primarily in the United States and Canada. Over the last six decades, ...

(APGA).

Garden facts

The Chicago Botanic Garden has 50,000 members, the largest membership of any U.S. public garden, and is Chicago's 7th largest cultural institution and 12th-ranking tourist attraction. The 25 display gardens and four natural habitats include: *The Aquatic Garden *Bonsai Collection *The Bulb Garden *The Grunsfeld Children's Growing Garden *The Circle Garden *Crescent Garden *Dwarf Conifer Garden *Enabling Garden *English Oak Meadow *English Walled Garden *Esplanade *Evening Island *Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Garden *Great Basin & Water Gardens *Greenhouses *The Green Roof *Heritage Garden *Kleinman Family Cove *Lakeside Garden *Landscape Gardens *Elizabeth Hubert Malott Japanese Garden *Mary Mix McDonald Woods *The Plant Evaluation Gardens *Suzanne S. Dixon Prairie *Native Plant Garden *Model Railroad Garden *The

Bruce Krasberg Bruce Krasberg (1906–1988) was an American industrialist and horticulturist who was president of R. Krasberg and Sons Manufacturing Company of Chicago, which later became the Krasberg Corporation (Krasco). Biography Krasberg was born in Sc ...

Rose Garden *Sensory Garden *Skokie River *Spider Island *Waterfall Garden

Architecture

The architectural design for the Chicago Botanic Garden began with the creation of the master plan by

John O. Simonds John Ormsbee Simonds was born in Jamestown, North Dakota on March 11, 1913. He was a visionary landscape architect, planner, educator, and environmentalist. Simonds was an original modernist landscape architect and one of the most influential an ...

and Geoffrey Rausch. Several famous buildings have been 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

Conservation

The Chicago Botanic Garden opened the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Conservation Science Center, located at the south end of the garden, to the public on September 23, 2009. In September 2010, the Plant Science Center earned a Gold LEED (

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating systems for the design, construction ...

) rating from the

U.S. Green Building Council The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), co-founded by Mike Italiano, David Gottfried and Rick Fedrizzi in 1993, is a private 501(c)3, membership-based non-profit organization that promotes sustainability in building design, construction, and op ...

for its sustainable design. The Chicago Botanic Garden conserves rare plant species, and works 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 Partnership The Millennium Seed Bank Partnership (MSBP or MSB), formerly known as the Millennium Seed Bank Project, is the largest '' ex situ'' plant conservation programme in the world coordinated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. After being awarded a ...

managed by the Royal Botanic Gardens,

Kew Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is a ...

. 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 Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. The garden is a member of

Chicago Wilderness Chicago Wilderness is a regional alliance of more than 250 different organizations that work together to improve the quality of life of the individuals and the many other species living in the Chicago (Illinois) area."Chicago Wilderness." Chicago ...

, a consortium of 200 local institutions dedicated to preserving and restoring Chicago's natural areas, as well as the

Center for Plant Conservation The Center for Plant Conservation (CPC) is a not-for-profit organization consisting of a network with more than 50 institutions. The mission is to conserve and restore the rare native plants of the United States and Canada. CPC represents a netwo ...

, a group of 30 other botanic gardens and arboreta committed to conserving rare plants from their regions.

Education

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. *

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

Committee on Evolutionary Biology Ph.D. Program *

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

Chicago Ecology & Evolution Group Ph.D. Program 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 Other educational programs available at the garden include the Green Youth Farm, the Windy City Harvest, and the Cook County Sheriff's Vocational Rehabilitation Impact Center.

World Environment Day (2008)

In 2008, the Chicago Botanic Garden was chosen by the

United Nations Environment Programme The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the United Nations Conference on th ...

(UNEP) as the North American host for World Environment Day with the theme "CO₂—Kick the Habit!: Towards a Low Carbon Economy". Over 30 nonprofit, 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 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 Commonwealth Edison, commonly known by syllabic abbreviation as ComEd, is the largest electric utility in Illinois, and the in Chicago and much of Northern Illinois. Its service territory stretches roughly from Iroquois County on the south to ...

to provide information about Watt Spot, a program to assist homeowners who want to pay market price for electricity *Northern Illinois Energy Project, who provided free CFL bulbs *

and

Openlands Openlands is a non-profit conservation organization and accredited land trust that works with groups and individuals in northeastern Illinois, northwestern Indiana, and southeastern Wisconsin to preserve open space, develop walking and biking tr ...

, who provided information about local conservation and restoration programs *Horrigan Urban Forest Products, who 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 use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = , nationality = , citizenship = , education = Yale University, University of ...

, president of the

Environmental Defense Fund Environmental Defense Fund or EDF (formerly known as Environmental Defense) is a United States-based nonprofit environmental advocacy group. The group is known for its work on issues including global warming, ecosystem restoration, oceans, and hu ...

; 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 Exelon Corporation is an American Fortune 100 energy company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois and incorporated in Pennsylvania. It generates revenues of approximately $33.5 billion and employs approximately 33,400 people. Exelon is the largest ...

; Arthur J. Gibson, vice president of environment, health & safety for

Baxter International Baxter International Inc. is an American multinational healthcare company with headquarters in Deerfield, Illinois. The company primarily focuses on products to treat kidney disease, and other chronic and acute medical conditions. The company ...

; and Arthur Armishaw, chief technology and services officer for

HSBC HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational universal bank and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in Europe by total assets ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021. In 2021, HSBC had $10.8 tri ...

—North America. 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 Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livin ...

gardens at the Chicago Botanic Garden were the

victory garden Victory gardens, also called war gardens or food gardens for defense, were vegetable, fruit, and herb gardens planted at private residences and public parks in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Germany during World War I ...

s 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 encourages others to garden sustainably by composting

food waste Food loss and waste is food that is not eaten. The causes of food waste or loss are numerous and occur throughout the food system, during production, processing, distribution, retail and food service sales, and consumption. Overall, about o ...

, installing backyard rain barrels, using

native plants In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often popularised as "with no human intervention") during history. The term is equi ...

, removing

invasive species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species ad ...

, and establishing

perennials A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also widel ...

. 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.

Budburst

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 Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as habitat factors (such as elevation). Examples include the date of emergence of leaves ...

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, BudBurst aims to help scientists measure asynchronous plant-pollinator activities in light of climate change.

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. In 2012, The Chicago Botanic Garden was chosen as one of 10 "Great Place" (Public Space) for providing food locally, excellence in design, education and outreach, and sustainability by the American Planning Association, which selects "Great Places" in the United States annually to highlight good places for people to work and to live, representing a "true sense of place, cultural and historical interest".

References

External links

*
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
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