Chicago Botanic Garden - 26 Gardens

What's New in the Garden

Garden wall and berm under construction
A curving garden wall and planted berm are being created along the western boundary of the Chicago Botanic Garden. The 1.25-mile project featuring grasses, flowers, trees, shrubs and vines will reduce highway noise and block undesirable views within the Garden and add a beautiful new landscape for passing motorists. See photos and find out more.

Gardens of the Great Basin

Evening Island | Lakeside Gardens | Water Gardens

Three gardens of beauty, serenity and preeminent design—Evening Island, the Lakeside Gardens and the Water Gardens—have been created for the delight and enjoyment of visitors. These new gardens surround the Garden's central lake and extend gardens into the water in a way never seen before at a botanic garden. These new gardens are yours to discover.

See our Garden grow. … The new gardens encircle the Great Basin, the Garden’s central lake, offering ever-changing beauty on land and in the water. This year marks their first flowering, which will highlight hundreds of crab apples in bloom this spring.

Evening Island
With spectacular views across the Garden’s lakes, 5-acre Evening Island combines diverse hillside, meadow and woodland gardens. Sweeps of flowering perennials, shrubs and grasses lend grandeur to a landscape, which includes the Butz Memorial Carillon, a sloping lawn, a hillside terrace and a council ring.

Lakeside Gardens
The Lakeside Gardens curving along the land north of Evening Island showcase flowering trees, shrubs and perennials, with the 7.5-acre body of water acting as a reflecting pool.

Water Gardens
Water Gardens within the Great Basin establish a major aquatic plant collection. These gardens encompass tens of thousands of native and ornamental plants, such as bulrushes, pickerel weed and irises. A colorful palette of waterlilies and lotuses is a summertime highlight.

Walks and Bridges
Pedestrian pathways make the circuit of the Great Basin, with two distinctive bridges–the Arch to the east and the Serpentine to the west–providing dramatic views.

Designer
The internationally acclaimed landscape architecture firm Oehme, van Sweden & Associates is the designer of the Great Basin. Oehme, van Sweden’s work includes the Nelson A. Rockefeller Park in New York City, the Francis Scott Key memorial in Georgetown and the landscape design plan for the World War II memorial in Washington, D.C.

Japanese Garden renewed

The Japanese Garden has recently received its most significant facelift in 21 years.

In 1972, Dr. Kochi Kawana designed Sansho-En (Garden of Three Islands) with plants that recalled Japanese forms but were hardy in the Midwest.

Our desire was to preserve the original design, said Tim Johnson, Director of Horticuture.

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