Explore the Garden
• Aquatic Garden
• Bonsai Collection
• Bulb Garden
• Children's Growing
Garden
• Circle Garden
• The Crescent
• Dwarf Conifer Garden
• Enabling Garden
• English Oak Meadow
• English Walled Garden
• Esplanade
• Evening Island
• Fruit & Vegetable
Garden
• Gardens of the
Great Basin
• Greenhouses
• Heritage Garden
• Kleinman Family Cove
• Lakeside Gardens
• Landscape Gardens
• Japanese Garden
• McDonald Woods
• Native Plant Garden
• Plant Conservation
Science Center
• Plant Evaluation
Gardens
• Prairie
• Railroad Garden
• Rose Garden
• Sensory Garden
• Skokie River
• Spider Island
• The Trellis Bridge
• Water Gardens
• Waterfall Garden
Explore the Garden
• Linnaeus sculpture
• Bald cypress hedge
• Seasonal containers
• Water features
• The physic garden
• Plant family beds
• Geographic beds
Tom Soulsby tells us about the plants that went into the troughs in the Heritage Garden in spring.
Heritage Garden
take a tour
Narrated by Kris Jarantoski, Executive Vice President and Director
The Heritage Garden pays tribute to the botanic gardens of the past and the manner in which they organized and displayed plants.
The Heritage Garden is dedicated to Carolus Linnaeus, who established binomial nomenclature as the system of naming plants we still use today. Modeled after Europe's first botanical garden in Padua, Italy, it is a circular space, divided into four quadrants. A large statue of Linneaus presides over the garden.
Seven perimeter beds display plants according to their geographic origin; 14 additional beds display the major plant families grouped according to their scientific classification.
In the center is a signature water feature with cascading sheets of water and a classic physic garden, which is planted with medicinal plants from around the world. In the summer, three aquatic pools contain water lilies, lotus, and other tropical water plants.
