Enjoy Your Visit — WALK THE GARDEN

Enjoy a Seasonal Garden Walk

The Garden can be experienced in so many ways at every time of the year. Perhaps the most immediate and gratifying experience is to walk the Garden. A spring walk can be fragrant and inspiring; a summer walk may be warm and intense; an autumn walk may be a thrill of color and sound; and a winter walk can be invigorating and nurturing. Find your own pathway — paved, bark-lined, or meandering — and make the Garden your own.

The outer circuit of the Garden is an ideal place for a fitness walk, a high-intensity run, or a leisurely stroll, at any time of day and in every season. First thing in the morning, join the birds and herons testing out the new day. Will the fog lift? Will the clear sky become decorated with white clouds? Late on a summer evening, watch the sun set as the lights illuminate Evening Island.

Enhance your next visit to the Garden with one of these walks:

Conservation Walks

With the September 2009 opening of the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Conservation Science Center, there is a new home for the Garden’s many conservation efforts. We’ve designed two garden walks to deliver you to the doorstep of the Plant Science Center from two different directions, while passing through the natural areas that are at the hub of the Garden’s conservation activities. Discover more.

	Spring and summer Walks
	Regenstein fruit & vegetable garden This beautiful garden of edible plants is as much of a pleasurable stroll garden as any of the more traditional spaces. Take a walk along meandering paths, tidy brick-edged beds, fountains or pools, and captivating surprises at every turn.
	McDonald Woods To understand spring, you must walk in the woods. Here, in the Chicago Botanic Garden's McDonald Woods, spring arrives unaided by mowers and edgers, or fertilizers and bags of peat moss.
	MAY CrabApple Walk A beautiful spring walk designed to capture the crabapples and other magical vistas begins at the Overlook, next to the English Walled Garden.
	Spring Spring is arriving, slowly to be sure, but as it takes its time, it offers us an extended period to witness, and savor, its gifts.
	APRIL IN THE GARDEN April in the Garden is all about anticipation. Walk the cultivated gardens and the natural areas and discover both the brash and the modest—plants whose tropical colors take the chill off an April morning as well as the tiny, fleeting jewels only the fortunate will notice.
	June is the Month of Roses Stroll through the Rose Garden to experience one of the highlights of the Chicago Botanic Garden's collections.
	Explore the Dwarf Conifer Garden A walk through the newly renovated Dwarf Conifer Garden is truly a plant lover's feast for the eyes.
	A Walk Through the Crescent Garden Anticipation upon entering the Chicago Botanic Garden is rewarded with the eight curving, terraced beds of the Crescent.
	The English Walled Garden The six distinct rooms of the English Walled Garden demonstrate unique English gardening styles from the formal checkerboad to abundant cottage garden.
	Along the Water's Edge The Garden's 5.7 miles of shoreline invite walkers to experience the serenity of the lakes and other water features.
	A SUMMER Evening Walk Through the Garden The interplay of light and lengthening shadows creates a completely different feeling for visitors walking through the Garden.
	Bonsai Walk This outdoor exhibit opens in late April and lasts until approximately early November. Fifty of the showiest trees, at their prime moments of ornamental appeal, are chosen for public outdoor display in the Searle and Runnells Courtyards adjacent to the Regenstein Center.
	SCULPTURE Walk There is always something new to see or experience, for the Garden offers unique pleasures — one of which is the Garden's sculpture collection.

	Autumn WALKS
	EARLY FALL WOWS Not only are the annuals, perennials, vines, trees, and shrubs at the peak of their growth, but each individual garden here has been planted up with extra horticultural “wows”
	An Autumn Walk in the Garden The textures and colors of autumn bring delight to walking visitors at the Garden with fall-blooming daises, unusual bulbs and prairie grasses in full seed.
	An Autumn WALK IN THE DIXON PRAIRIE Walk the Prairie in fall and reconnect with your heritage. It will delight all — schoolchildren, gardeners, bird-watchers, and nature enthusiasts — with its rich communities of life.

	WINTER WALKS
	A WALK THROUGH THE GARDEN'S GREENHOUSES Come inside and refresh yourself as you discover the healing and spiritual properties of hundreds of unusual plants!
	Celebrate Winter In winter, a well-designed garden tells a story of texture, color, and shape. It speaks through evergreens and berries, textural barks, and colorful stems.
	WONDERLAND EXPRESS WALK Experience the unique blend of garden-scale trains, artistic wizardry, magnificent horticulture, and fanciful design that is Wonderland Express.