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What city topped Earthlab's Top 10 Green U.S. Cities List? You won't be surprised that it's Chicago when you find yourself admid the city's natural wonders. From gardening classes for kids to Green-themed cuisine, you'll see how Chicagoans have embraced the race to sustainability.
Garfield Park Conservatory
Approximately 4.5 acres inside and out, the recently restored Garfield Park Conservatory is the perfect start to your self-guided pursuit of green Chicago.
It’s one of the world’s largest gardens under glass, with a spectacular range of unexpected flora including tropical palm trees, desert-dwelling succulents, pre-historic ferns, and even a chocolate tree. Serene yet compelling, its exhibits are interwoven with water displays, marble sculptures, glass objects, and benches designed by celebrated artists, such as renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly.
Sugar from the Sun
Enter a world that most have never seen with Sugar from the Sun. This new permanent exhibition takes you into the inner workings of plants: how their leaves combine air with water and sunlight to produce sugar-energy. With the help of demonstrations, unravel the mystery of how plants grow and sustain humankind in this living exhibition of plants, water, stone, and innovative sound and lighting technology.
Family Activities
Kids delight in an interactive plant adventure in the Elizabeth Morse Genius Children’s Garden. They can climb a 7-foot-tall seed, tap on the hollow-sounding Balsa tree, glide down a green slide, meet a shy plant and a larger-than-life bumble bee, and hunt down more unusual specimens when they play the free Eye Spy Conservatory Hunt game. When you drop in for Family Make-&-Take Sessions, kids leave with fun centennial mementos including a special charm talisman of the conservatory and a mini-terrarium modeled after the Fern Room.
See Tropical Plants this Summer
Starting Saturday, June 7 check out the wildly colored tropical plants selected for Summer 2008 Flower Power. A soundtrack of ’60s and ’70s music, calling out plants on display, showcases the flower power theme and adds to the merriment.
Watch a Master Gardener at Work
Catch the outdoor gardens in full bloom. The Demonstration Garden tended by master gardeners will give you great ideas for your community or organic garden, with tips on topics like composting and even beekeeping. Tour it on your own or meet the gardeners to discuss your special interests; you might just get to taste something from the day’s harvest.
Monet Gardens
Inspired by the original in Giverny, France, the Monet Garden, while much smaller than its namesake, works with similar color combinations and concepts such as fruit trees growing flat against a surface.
City Garden
To the west of the conservatory, the newest outdoor feature, the City Garden, is in progress. Its design is guided by urban greening principles and an oval motif originated by Jens Jensen. When completed this summer it will boast winding, braided pathways, islands of greenery, a gravel garden, a 100x150-foot Lily Pool, and a waterfall.
Shopping
Summer weekends, hunt down gifts, quilts, antiques, crystal, and other whimsical items at the outdoor Garfield Market Place. Starting in July, fresh and organic produce are among the finds. Inside the conservatory, stop at the renovated Gift Shop where potted plants (from the Aroid House, the Desert House, and others), handcrafted botanical art-objects created from the conservatory’s specimens, Garfield’s own coffee blend, exhibition-related merchandise, and handcrafted gourmet honey courtesy of the conservatory’s bees are but a few of the gems.
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Garfield Park Conservatory
Daily 9 am–5 pm (Thursdays 8 pm); 300 N. Central Park Avenue; 312.746.5100
garfield-conservatory.org
(except the Fern Room)
Eye Spy Conservatory Hunt
www.garfieldconservatory.
org/kid_family_fun.htm
Family Make-&-Take Sessions
Scentennial Celebrations... & More; Through Sunday, June 29, Weekends 1–3 pm
Meet the Gardeners in the
Demonstration Garden Through September, Tuesdays and Saturdays
9 am–Noon, Thursdays 5–7:30 pm approximately
Garfield Market Place
(outdoors)
Weekends 11 am– 5 pm; West Campus
www.garfieldconservatory.org
/garfield_market_place.htm
Gift Shop
Mondays– Sundays 9:30 am– 4:30 pm (Thursdays 7:30 pm); 312.746.4147
