Chicago Botanic Garden is located in Glencoe, IL 25 miles away from downtown Chicago. I went there by car, but it is also reachable by Chicago Metra. The closest station is Braeside, a mile away from the garden. Admission to the garden is free (hooray!) but parking is $25 all day, so if you go with friends, carpooling is a good idea. Whoever managing this garden is pretty commited as the garden is open year round. The best time to visit would be during fall (pretty golden trees) and spring (tulips, everybody?). I visited the garden in early November. Winter had a late start this year so some trees still had some leaves and it wasn't freezing yet.
The garden is very big (almost 400 acres) and separated to 25 display gardens that are surrounded by natural area. There is a free iPhone app that you can use to navigate and look up all the displays in the garden. My favorite by far is the Japanese garden (and islands!). The beauty of Chicago's Japanese garden is on par with the Japanese garden in San Francisco. While the San Fransisco's garden is smaller with lots of pretty details, the Chicago garden's open landscape is more breathtaking, making you forget that you're in Midwest America.
Other recommended spot is the greenhouses, which had tropical, arid, and sub-tropical plants. They also have several banana trees!! When I grew up in Indonesia, banana trees were everywhere, including the neighbor’s lot across the street. Indonesians use banana leaves as food wrapping and doily so I always joke that I’d cut some leaves and bring them home.
A conference center by the Esplanade houses bonsai collections that were not available during cold weather and several rooms for shows, lectures, and meetings. If the sun hits the right angle, you can see rainbows over the lake! We didn’t find any of pot of gold, and the leprechauns prefer to stay hidden that day. But the rainbow and double rainbows were oh so pretty!
I’m planning to come back in Spring or Summer to see the flowers!
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