A Trip to the Chicago Botanical Gardens

Hello! If your looking for a paper crafting post today, you might want to come back tomorrow. My blog is about 'anything of creative interest to me' so today I'm going to talk about my trip to the Chicago Botanical Gardens. Believe it or not, I have not spent a single day in my own garden since my daughter's wedding. Although, I do hope to get outside today if the weather stays nice. After the wedding was over, there was just so much 'clean up'. That was something I never expected: the time it took to take all the decorations down, pack them up, put them away, and simply clean. If I wasn't working at my day job, I was at home doing post wedding chores. It took me an entire month. Then, on top of that, its been the summer of rain storms, heat and humidity, so if I had a day off, I couldn't go outside anyway because the weather wasn't cooperating. But, now I have two days off, and really hope I can get outside and enjoy the beautiful cooler temperatures and my garden, before its covered in 4 feet of snow! LOL! Anyhow, I said all this because when I was in Chicago to visit my daughter and son-in-law, and attend CHA, we also spent a day at the Chicago Botanical Gardens. The weather was absolutely perfect, and I just enjoyed myself so much walking around these gorgeous gardens (especially after being deprived of all my own garden for over a month), that I had to share my experience with you.

The first picture shows the entrance to the Chicago Botanical Gardens. Its a huge plot of land encompassing 385 acres and 24 display gardens uniquely situated on nine islands surrounded by lakes. I loved this pergola as you enter the first garden. The flowers and vines were just so full and lush. One of my son's favorite gardens was the Waterfall Garden. Here he is pictured below.

This is the Rose Garden where they have this beautiful fountain. I enjoyed taking my flip flops off and cooling my aching feet!

This picture shows my son-in-law strolling through the Water Gardens. I LOVED how this garden was set up. You walked on all these connecting bridges so that you could see the beautiful Water Lily's close up.

When my husband and I visit Botanical Gardens, we always like to take an idea home with us. Because were both getting older, and work long hours, we are always looking for ways to make our yard less high maintenance. One idea we came away with was all the 'ornamental grasses'. Although I have a lot of ornamental grass in my garden already, I never thought of using is as a hedge as they did. I thought it was just so pretty.

I loved this unique sunflower, especially how they used it as a low hedge.

Fountains were everywhere on the property. This is one of the first fountains you see when entering the gardens.

There are two different restaurants you can eat at while visiting the gardens. Here is a dining spot outside one of the restaurants. There is also a picnic area that you can use if you bring your own lunch.

This is me in the Rose Garden.

This is my husband and I in front of a gorgeous bed of annuals.

And here are the newlyweds, Ashley and Jason.

This is one of my favorite photos I took all day. We were walking through a field of tall ornamental grass and I asked the kids to stop and turn around, then snapped this shot.

This is a beautiful shade garden.

This is a picture of an actual Samurai house in the Japanese Garden. We got to take a little tour of it and hear a story about how it was transported and built.

Another shot of the Waterfall Garden.

A close up of a zinnia. What gorgeous color!

My beautiful daughter in an annual garden.

There were many sculptures in the garden, but this one was my favorite. It looks like its really alive! I just love how natural it is!

And lastly, a close up of one of the many Water Lily's in the garden. This one was my favorite.

I really enjoyed my trip to the gardens. I have only been to two other botanical gardens in my life (Milwaukee and Minnesota's), so this was quite a treat for me.

Have a great day! Amy