The Chicago Botanic Garden is one of the most beautiful places to experience spring.

First stop is the Antiques and Garden Fair, April 21 to 23, where visitors can purchase garden art and ornaments set amidst professionally designed indoor gardens.

Then return daily to see the constantly changing panorama of spring flora. More than a million flowers will burst into bloom, perfuming the air with fragrance and delighting the eyes with long-awaited color.

This tribute to spring extends throughout all 23 gardens and three natural areas. Enjoy the Garden's magnificent collection of Narcissus, in all colors, shapes and bloom times, making this premier display of charming daffodils one of the best in the country.

Thousands of fragrant flowering trees and shrubs bloom, including magnolias, crab apples, redbuds, ornamental pears and viburnums. From cheerful pansies to crepe-paper poppies, the cool-season annuals make their colorful appearance in containers, display beds and in the Garden's signature English troughs.

A much-anticipated event is the blooming of the crab apple trees framing the Great Basin and reflected in its waters, enhanced by thousands of flowering bulbs in the surrounding Lakeside Gardens.

Stroll the serene Eliabeth Hubert Malott Japanese Garden where cherries, magnolias, crab apples and hundreds of vibrant azaleas welcome spring.

The Bulb Garden is often the first area where visitors spot early color. In addition to the flowering sequence of little and big bulbs (which began January 31 this year!), look for the connoisseur's collection of rare and unusual bulb species.

Don't miss the field of poppies in the English Oak Meadow, the ephemeral appearance of woodland wildflowers in the Woods and the splashy river of tulips in the brand new Esplanade Garden.