Today was our bus tour to the Chicago Botanic Garden (
www.chicago-botanic.org/) and Northwind Perennial Farm (
http://northwindperennialfarm.com/). We had thirty four attendees including Mike M. and myself. It was a great day although the heat index reached over 100 degrees F this afternoon. Regardless, we made good time with our Van Galder bus and Dean, our driver, did a nice job getting us to our destinations and back home safely. I blogged extensively in May about Chicago Botanic Garden when I was there for an eight day course. I'm glad I was able to enjoy the summer transition and am always impressed with the scale and scope of that garden. I hit the ground running and ended up taking over 700 pictures there and 150 at Northwind! Mike did a nice job organizing the trip and we actually were ahead of schedule the entire day. I could go in to great detail regarding both destinations but really just encourage readers of this blog to visit and enjoy both locales. A caught an awesome shot of the 'Blue Spider' water lily (
Nymphaea) at CBG (below) and am impressed with the quality treatment and plant usage in all their water features. Further below is a neat checkerboard of golden sedum (
Sedum rupestre 'Angelina') and flossflower (
Ageratum sp.) punctuated with I think what are blue agaves. Cool. As I quickly sweated thru every layer I was wearing, I thought about Larry and Janice back at RBG with our volunteers and hoped they were keeping hydrated. The CBG staff was suffering too but duty calls!
CBBG is one of the top ten botanic gardens in the country and certainly one of my favorites. Their attention to detail is
amazing and the same visitor coming in May, July and October is going to see some dramatic transitions in plant material, particularly with seasonals and containers. I only had about 2.5 hours to explore on my own which doesn't do that garden justice. I had to really decide what to check out and had to skip the Japanese garden (awesome garden though but I caught it at peak in May), the prairie and some other s
paces. I did get through most of the gardens and was a real shutterbug. To the left is a shot in the enabling garden which is one of my favorites. Their cannas sure weren't munched by Japanese beetles like ours are back at RBG. In fact, I didn't notice that many beetles and wonder if the population is that variable or are they doing some sort of control there (or shipping them to Janesville)? To the right is a nice container grouping with the centerpiece being the silver Bismarck palm (
Bismarckia nobilis 'Silver'). They aren't shy about their containers at CBG and I think that the most consistently impressive container plantings can be found at CBG, Olbrich (Madison, WI) and Chanticleer (Wayne, PA). Directly below is a portion of the Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Garden (cool) and further below is the new Plant Conservation Science Center which is as impressive in its construction/architecture as it is in its intent. My May blogs show the green roofs on this building.
Our tour participants were real troopers and I'm glad we brought along three coolers full of water as we drank every bottle over the course of the day. Many participants were new to one or both destinations a
nd I think really enjoyed the experience. Peak heat seemed to hit at Northwind Perennial Farm but CBG was quite warm after lunch too. Having arrived early at CBG, we had an extra hour before our tram ride (which I skipped so I could go mobile and cover more real estate) and deliciou
s lunch (except the mushrooms in my wrap, yuck). Again, Mike had all the arrangements in place and we had literally no issues all day. To the left are Big John and Jackie in the Enabling Garden who had to be repeatedly warned about public diplays of affection with all the kids roaming around. There were lots of summer camp kids in color coordinated t-shirts and hopefully some will catch the "gardening bug" with this exposure. One group was preparing to play "hide and seek" in the English walled garden and as the kids went screaming thru the gardens to hide, I mentioned to the teenage chaparones that it probably wasn't the best venue or location for that activity (as I cringed). To the right are Ron and Bev W. who are two of our wonderful volunteers and good people all around. We made it to Northwind in good time and I encouraged our attendees to explore the display gardens too (one of which is below).
Northwind Perennial Farm (located near Lake Geneva, WI but with a Burlington, WI address) is not your standard garden center. Located on on old farm, there are neat outbuildings with antiques, garden ar
t and other goodies for sale. Of course they have lots of neat plants, most of which are selected for low-maintenance, adap
tability but with a long season of appeal. They have also introduced plants as well ('Northwind' switch grass and 'Tara' prairie dropseed to name a few). The display gardens are really neat and one of the co-owners, Roy Diblik, has been a speaker at RBG and is sought out around the country as both a speaker and consultant. He is known for his "Know Maintenance" approach to gardening which focuses on low-maintenance partners that are suitable for their site and tough as nails. Further below are some more pictures of this special nursery that I recommend to everyone. I'm losing steam on my blog here as I am pooped and fading fast. Overall, a great day playing hooky. I hope we schedule more trips like this and Mike and I have already starting to come up with some other ideas.... :)
amazing and the same visitor coming in May, July and October is going to see some dramatic transitions in plant material, particularly with seasonals and containers. I only had about 2.5 hours to explore on my own which doesn't do that garden justice. I had to really decide what to check out and had to skip the Japanese garden (awesome garden though but I caught it at peak in May), the prairie and some other s
paces. I did get through most of the gardens and was a real shutterbug. To the left is a shot in the enabling garden which is one of my favorites. Their cannas sure weren't munched by Japanese beetles like ours are back at RBG. In fact, I didn't notice that many beetles and wonder if the population is that variable or are they doing some sort of control there (or shipping them to Janesville)? To the right is a nice container grouping with the centerpiece being the silver Bismarck palm (Bismarckia nobilis 'Silver'). They aren't shy about their containers at CBG and I think that the most consistently impressive container plantings can be found at CBG, Olbrich (Madison, WI) and Chanticleer (Wayne, PA). Directly below is a portion of the Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Garden (cool) and further below is the new Plant Conservation Science Center which is as impressive in its construction/architecture as it is in its intent. My May blogs show the green roofs on this building. 
nd I think really enjoyed the experience. Peak heat seemed to hit at Northwind Perennial Farm but CBG was quite warm after lunch too. Having arrived early at CBG, we had an extra hour before our tram ride (which I skipped so I could go mobile and cover more real estate) and deliciou
s lunch (except the mushrooms in my wrap, yuck). Again, Mike had all the arrangements in place and we had literally no issues all day. To the left are Big John and Jackie in the Enabling Garden who had to be repeatedly warned about public diplays of affection with all the kids roaming around. There were lots of summer camp kids in color coordinated t-shirts and hopefully some will catch the "gardening bug" with this exposure. One group was preparing to play "hide and seek" in the English walled garden and as the kids went screaming thru the gardens to hide, I mentioned to the teenage chaparones that it probably wasn't the best venue or location for that activity (as I cringed). To the right are Ron and Bev W. who are two of our wonderful volunteers and good people all around. We made it to Northwind in good time and I encouraged our attendees to explore the display gardens too (one of which is below). 
t and other goodies for sale. Of course they have lots of neat plants, most of which are selected for low-maintenance, adap
tability but with a long season of appeal. They have also introduced plants as well ('Northwind' switch grass and 'Tara' prairie dropseed to name a few). The display gardens are really neat and one of the co-owners, Roy Diblik, has been a speaker at RBG and is sought out around the country as both a speaker and consultant. He is known for his "Know Maintenance" approach to gardening which focuses on low-maintenance partners that are suitable for their site and tough as nails. Further below are some more pictures of this special nursery that I recommend to everyone. I'm losing steam on my blog here as I am pooped and fading fast. Overall, a great day playing hooky. I hope we schedule more trips like this and Mike and I have already starting to come up with some other ideas.... :)
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