photo courtesy Pexels
Who can resist a flower show, especially when you live among glass and steel, and you had to face long Lockdowns?
This year's exhibit at the Garfield Park Conservatory is so special that you wouldn't want to miss it.
2021 Spring Flower Show “Saturation” will be on display until May 9th.
Until the Covid-19 restrictions will allow us to be able to visit everything that the Conservatory has to offer, let's explore these wonders with a virtual tour.
There are still so many options to explore, that it is impossible not to want to get a taste, instead of spending time in the house, especially with the upcoming of beautiful days.
Hoping for better Times to Have the Chance to Visit the Outdoor Gardens
The Garfield Park Conservatory occupies two acres of public greenhouse space and 10 acres of outdoor gardens.
Opened to the public in 1908, by the landscape architect Jan Jansen, in Garfield Park, adopting the plants that had belonged to three smaller greenhouses before, the Conservatory was designed to be the world's largest space for universal plants, under the same roof.
As for today, it is one of America's largest and more spectacular Conservatories.
Jensen designed it as a collection of plants and foliage reunited in a series of landscapes under glass, that was then considered a revolutionary idea. (garfieldconservatory.org)
Both Garfield Park and its conservatory are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The outdoor gardens are about to be open, as soon as the Covid-19 restrictions will become a bit more permissive.
You will be able to take long walks among lily pools, a gravel garden sprinkled with blue glass, and a stand of aspen trees whose leaves flutter with every breeze.
In the sensory garden, you will find carnivorous plants (how cool does that sound?)
In the Demonstration garden, people can learn about community and organic gardening in Chicago.
You can actually learn everything about gardening, many types of flowers, herbs, and seeds, how to plant them, water them, grow them.
This activity is very precious especially to children and teen-ages, as they have the opportunity to learn how plants grow, where does the food come from, and experience a small bit of a farm life and the joy of having a garden.
In the Aroid house, you will admire plants that maybe you didn't know they exist: persian lillies, the calabash tree, and the Garfield Anthurium.
The Palm House is the largest room in the Conservatory, so absolutely not to miss. It is designed as an idealized tropical landscape, featuring more than 70 graceful palms, as well as other plants from warm habitats. ((garfieldconservatory.org)
The Fern Room was designed to give you a glimpse of what Illinois might have looked like millions of years ago. Lush ferns, rocky outcroppings and an indoor lagoon evoke the swampy landscape of prehistoric Chicago.
The Desert House displays one of the region’s most varied collections of cacti and succulents, spectacular for their unique shapes and general aspects and lives.
photo courtesy pixabay
At the moment, due to Covid-19 measures, you are asked to book your tickets in advance on the Conservatory site.
Groups of visitors are not allowed for now but they are offering virtual field trips for groups of all kinds.
Other activities that you can explore at the Conservatory are happening, for now, online, so you will be able to attend them from the comfort of your homes.
Teaching Artist, Abena Motaboli will offer an 8-week online course in creating and using natural pigments and dyes, dedicated for adults with age of +55.
If preparing yourself home natural ink is one of your interests, especially as you want to come close to using earth materials and pigments in your everyday life, this might be your next cool thing.
The workshops sound even more interesting as they come with meditation and creative writing.
Materials are freely supplied for this class, and they will be available for pick up.
Comments / 1