Chicago Botanic Garden

I found myself in Glencoe, IL today visiting the Chicago Botanic Garden.  I visited some folks here and have a presentation and tour at the gardens tomorrow morning so I took advantage of 43 degrees F, no rain and no competition out in the gardens.  I think I saw four or five people and had “run of the place”.  This area of Illinois received the same rain/ice that we’ve had the past couple of days and I heard from Cindy that the icy conditions at RBG are slowing down our Holiday Light Show (HLS) retrieval too.  Despite lots of puddles, I made it through most of the garden.  There isn’t much we can do about Mother Nature and I found my garden jaunt today to be refreshing as I snapped a quick 622 photos of neat things out in the gardens.  It was nice to look at conifers, grasses, colorful stems, ornamental bark and of course, the conservatories.  Above and below are just some of the shots I took today.  I had lunch with Andrew Bunting and Tim Pollack at the gardens and was exploring both before and after the lunch hour.

The Elizabeth Hubert Malott Japanese Garden is always exceptional any day of the year!

trimmed lindens (Tilia sp.)

two weeping European beeches (Fagus sylvatica) looking picturesque

The Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Conservation Science Center with trial beds in the foreground

panicled hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata) trials

bluestar (Amsonia ‘Lemon Drop’) – perennial

cool winter containers

pigsqueak (Bergenia ‘Cabernet’) – perennial

shaped hedge of bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) – deciduous conifer

coral bells (Heuchera ‘Electra’) – perennial