By design, our living museum will never be complete. We will continue to grow and change, continue to become the Chicago Botanic Garden. Who will the Garden be in ten years—or when we celebrate our 100th anniversary in 2072?

As we look to the future, you inspire us to keep imagining.

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“When you're over 50, as the Garden is now, you find you’ve got a multigenerational family. You have grandparents, parents, grandkids. That is who we are today: a modern, multigenerational family. And we are a multiethnic and multiracial community. This diversity, this spectrum, is the most important thing to recognize as we look to the future.”

— Jean M. Franczyk, president and CEO

“...the Chicago Botanic Garden is an excellent museum, a world-class botanic garden, and a clear leader in our industry.”

—American Alliance of Museums, 2023 reaccreditation report

“Espero que el jardín está aquí por siempre.” (“I hope that the garden is here forever.”)                       

—A visitor to our exhibition Flourish: The Garden at 50 in 2022

How We Got Here and Where We’re Going

“At first a botanic garden seemed the impossible dream.”

—June Price Reedy, past chair of the Chicago Horticultural Society’s Woman’s Board, in summer 1960

1960s

Our roots go back to the Chicago Horticultural Society, founded in 1890, a group that hosted flower and horticultural shows. In the early 1960s, the Society worked with the Forest Preserves of Cook County to create a botanic garden on the Skokie Marsh.

By the late 1960s, the Garden had acquired its first plants, seven large white pines. Those didn’t turn out so well.

None of them survived. But we’ve learned a lot since then and have had a lot of support along the way.

1970s and 1980s

The impossible dream becomes When the Garden opened its doors in spring 1972, we had a small greenhouse, one garden area open to the public, and about 30 staff. In the next couple decades or so, we developed 14 garden areas in rapid succession, including some of our visitors’ favorites:

Malott Japanese Garden

The gorgeous vista of the Elizabeth Hubert Malott Japanese Garden—opened in 1982—has been captured on a U.S. postage stamp and in Vogue magazine.

Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Garden

In 1985, we opened the Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Garden, now one of the biggest of its kind in the Midwest.

Krasberg Rose Garden

Highlights of the Krasberg Rose Garden, which opened in 1985, include the Old Garden roses—often deeply fragrant roses that were in existence before 1867.

1990s through 2015

A profound act of hope

“...there are things that are incredibly hopeful—like the Garden’s seed bank, which will protect the next generation. For me, seed banking is a profound act of hope—hope for a future with beautiful natural areas with healthy plant populations.”

—Kay Havens, Ph.D., chief scientist and Negaunee vice president for science

In the next decades, we expanded what we do, how we work, and where we have a presence. We became more than a botanic garden in Glencoe.

For instance, we added a new priority: plant conservation science, starting small and dreaming big. Our science program launched with a single lab and included our seed bank, with only seven species, in a Sears chest freezer in a closet. Today, the Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science and Action, which includes the Dixon National Tallgrass Prairie Seed Bank, has international recognition.

The power of plants

Their names were Spike and Alice, two corpse flowers native to the rainforests of Indonesia. Our horticulturists had spent 12 years raising them, and when they were powering up to bloom in 2015, they became two of the most popular plants in the Garden’s history.

In bloom, corpse flowers (Amorphophallus titanum) are a rare and memorable event—they can smell like rotting flesh to attract pollinators.

2020s and beyond

Who we are today

Even in our wildest dreams, we never imagined the Garden or our community would continue growing so quickly and significantly.

In 2023, we introduced a new visual logo and tagline that unifies the Chicago Botanic Garden’s main campus—along with our science, learning, and urban agriculture programs—while allowing each program to stand out on its own. This update reflects who we are today—welcoming, vibrant, modern.

What began as an “impossible dream” is now 28 gardens and four natural areas in Glencoe, 13 urban farms, and more than 700 employees. We offer programs and events in every season such as Lightscape, an illuminated trail and holiday tradition.  

Science

Negaunee Institute

In 2005, the Garden collaborated with Northwestern University to offer a graduate degree in plant biology and conservation, one of a few of its kind in the U.S. In recent years, Garden scientists have been training other botanic gardens around the world on our plant studbook approach to preventing extinctions.

Learning

Regenstein School

For lifelong learners, in 2016, we opened the Regenstein Learning Campus, featuring big, rolling hills and a Nature Preschool. Regenstein School offers everything from camps to certificate programs to teacher workshops.

Urban agriculture

Windy City Harvest

In 2003, we launched Windy City Harvest, which added a social justice focus to our work. Through our urban agriculture program—which includes education and jobs training—we give boxes of fresh produce to eligible families in our free prescription produce program, VeggieRx.

“We’re fortunate to bask in the shade of trees other people planted. Now we have to plant trees for people 50 years hence—for your child, for your neighbor’s child. Today I saw these seven little sapling chestnut oaks—as skinny as my pinky. I have no expectation I’m going to live to see those trees in their full expression, harboring drawing warblers in. But it’s cool that I can plant today what others will enjoy in the future.”

—Fred Spicer, executive vice president and director

In 2022, we celebrated our extraordinary growth and 50th birthday. What happens in the next five decades? You’re invited to be part of our story.