Chicago Botanic Garden – Part I

July 26th, 2007

I’ve been visiting gardens and nature places for a while now as part of my business travel policy of making time to see places of interest besides conference rooms.

As a bona fide control freak, I find I am less unhinged by the inevitable travails of travel if there is something on the other end of the path traveled besides work. And, at least in the spring and summer, what better destination than a walk in a beautiful garden, eh?

Chicago Botanic Garden

So since I was headed to Chicago for a meeting, I blocked out Sunday afternoon to visit the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Trust me. It is no small undertaking to try to see the Chicago Botanic Garden in a single afternoon. With 385 acres of displays, 2.3 million plants and stunning garden architecture and about 6 million other garden lovers visiting at the same time, there’s a lot to see.

As with nearly all of the botanical gardens I have visited, the Chicago Botanic Garden is arranged in a meandering path of interconnected theme gardens. It’s quite a lengthy and diverse list:

-Aquatic Garden

-Bonsai Collection

-Bulb Garden

-Circle Garden

-Dwarf Conifer Garden

-Enabling Garden

-English Oak Meadow

-English Walled Garden

-Evening Island

-Fruit and Vegetable Garden

-Greenhouses

-Heritage Garden

-Japanese Garden

-Lakeside Gardens

-Landscape Garden

-McDonald Woods

-Model Railroad Garden

-Native Plant Garden

-Prairie

-River Valley

-Rose Garden

-Sensory Garden

-Shade Evaluation Garden

-Spider Island

-Sun Evaluation Garden

-Water Gardens

-Waterfall Garden

Whew.

The thing that was really missing, however, was a NAP GARDEN. After walking for hours and hours, I longed for a shady lawn where I could stretch out and close my eyes. Looking around at the other garden peepers, I wasn’t alone. But although there were some beautiful lawns, it was clear that they were designed as throughways and byways—not for napping.

Chicago Botanic Garden

Since I’m still catching up with work, I’ll be splitting my post on the gardens for the next couple of days with some photos and brief observations. I consider visiting professional gardens an educational experience. The plant pros have the luxury and the budget to experiment and find the optimum plant varieties for their locations, toy with various combinations of plants to achieve the maximum effect and work with architectural pros to design the most pleasing of hardscape to support the plants. There is much to be learned from all that hard work and experience.

Yes, I learn a good deal from reading all the great garden blogs as well as from reading the gardening magazines that fill my mailbox. But there is something even more effective about actually SEEING for yourself the effects of different plant combinations in a garden setting. And looking at a photo of a flower isn’t nearly as informative as seeing the actual beast. I mean, how many times have we been disappointed with our orders from nurseries with fancy catalogs?

So visit again soon and I’ll share some photos and naïve observations about things I learned at the Chicago Botanic Garden. And if you have posted your own garden or nature travel blog posts, will you let me know about it by leaving a comment?

Ciao!

Posted In: Gardening, Lifestyle, Travel

Tags: gloriosa superba Rothschildiana

Leave a Comment

Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis

May 18th, 2007

So, to complete the last (you hope) chapter in the Robin-Does-Memphis saga, I have posted some new photos of the Dixon Gallery and Gardens in my photo album. In case you didn’t already know, the Dixon is the “premier art institution” in Memphis.

Now, I don’t mean to sound like a snob (Okay, I’m a snob.), but 2,000 paintings does not make a “premier art institution,” especially when only an itty bitty percentage of those paintings is on display. Unless, perhaps, you’re in Memphis. (Snob talking here.)

I’ll dispatch with their whole “premier art institution” concept pretty quickly. Few paintings on view (about 30). Some nice, some okay. Small gallery space, even if nicely done. Mostly taken up with an UNBELIEVABLY BORING SILVER EXHIBITION when I was there. A VERY SMALL glimpse of the original Dixon residence is open. Very traditional and very unspectacular. Snore.

BUT, the gardens, although relatively small, are truly wonderful. Unlike the Memphis Botanical Gardens, the Dixon folks have truly captured the whole concept of a versatile garden.

You enter the gallery and grounds through the Dixon “cutting” garden, which is more than just an ugly cutting garden. It is a real jewel–mixed borders, mixed pots of plants, archways, water features, even a small arboretum. It’s small, but very nicely arranged and maintained. I especially appreciated that the caretakers had taken the time to LABEL THE PLANTS so you could go home and look them up (and order them!) when you got home. You would be amazed at the number of gardens that fail in this elementary function.

Mrs. Dixon (I have no idea what significance these Dixon people had other than owning this property. Look it up yourself.) apparently loved the woodland garden. It’s truly spectacular. The only reason you don’t see more photos is because my photography skills stink. Shade is tough, man.

Mr. Dixon apparently loved the more formal gardens. These also are very nice, lovely places with mixed plants, water features and interesting structure.

My advice for Memphis: Skip the gallery and do the garden.

Coming up next: Bluebird update (eggs!) and (for family and friends) some handsome pictures of Ben as the new ensign in the photo gallery. Don’t miss it.

Posted In: Gardening, Lifestyle, Travel

Tags: gloriosa superba Rothschildiana

One Comment