Spring at Chicago Botanic II

There is a hillside at the Gardens, which is always covered by one type of flower - it varies 

from year to year.  This year it was covered by 10,000 "Icelandic Poppies" planted

last fall by volunteers.  The variety is "Champagne Bubble" and each flower rises 

about 15 inches from the ground on a stem no larger than a wire.

Hillside covered by Icelandic Poppies

"Icelandic Poppies" come in yellow, orange, white, pink, and magenta champagne bubbles.

"Shooting Star" was a dramatic little flower in the Heritage Garden.

"Tristar White Blue Creeper" was another star-shaped flower.

Primroses come in many colors and are used as contrasts with many other flowers.

These are a new variety, "Belarina Nectarine."  They change color by the day, becoming darker.

These are small posies of Pink Primroses. 

These are "Dwarf Bearded Iris," a very-early blooming variety of the popular iris

and also much smaller, perhaps 8 inches high.

Much larger is "Batik," a new variety of bearded iris.  These plants are about 20 inches high

and come in many dramatic color combinations.

Bright orange Calendula / Pot Marigolds.

Bright yellow Calendula / Pot Marigolds.

Light Blue Daze

"Snowball Viburnum"

The "Enabling Garden" is designed to show people how to grow colorful flowers in a limited

space and not have to get down on your hands and knees/  There are raised beds and lots of pots

to give you ideas.  In this bed, there are "Antoinette" tulips, toadflax, nemesia, stock,

snapdragons, and other easily grown flowers.

This is a large pot with yellow primroses, pink English daisies, and blue pansies.

This pot has red nemesia, blue daze, pink snapdragons, pink English daisies, and

yellow primroses.  You could easily plant this on your porch or balcony.

One of the most popular colors this spring was French blue.  Here we have dark blue delphiniums

and a variety of French Blue cineraria  in pots.

Purple Cineraria in the English Garden.

A beautiful pot-planter with yellow and pink nemesia, blue and white pansies,

and "Antoinette" tulips in changing colors.

A pot in the English garden with "Blood Orange Nemesia" and "Red Mache Persian Buttercups."

Purple Persian Buttercups / Ranunculus

Purple Persian Buttercups in various shades of purple.

A bright border of yellow pansies.

A glowing row of deep purple Allium, from the Onion Family.

"English Daisies" are like small, colored pin cushions.

"Dalmatian Peach" foxglove and "Ruby Blaze" foxglove are colorful and

provide tall stalks in a garden.

A pot of "Dalmatian Peach" foxglove, a new variety this year.

Lavender foxglove at the back of a flower bed.

These African Daisies are one of the color-changing flowers.  This the way

they look on the third day, as their colors become deeper.

African Daisies the first day the flowers open.

"Hearts and Darts" African Daisies; these go from light orange to very deep burnt orange.

Deep Red African Daisies

"Scarlet Harmony" Poppy Anemones, brilliant color in the garden.

A bed of "Scarlet Harmony: poppy anemones with their feathery leaves.

"Blue Harmony" Poppy Anemones.  This is a true, deep French blue.

"Harmony Blue" Poppy Anemones

"White Harmony" Poppy Anemones.  Anemones come in many different varieties

from large and bold to small and delicate.

"White Harmony" Poppy Anemones.  The centers range from pale blue to pale lavender.

"Snowdrop Anemones."  These covered the ground under the trees by the lake.  They are good

sized, 3 or 4 inches in diamter.

One of the beds in the Sensory Garden.  These are all raised beds along a path through the

woods, and each of them is planted especially to appeal to the senses - one is for smell,

one is for sight, one is for color, one is for texture, etc.  And in each section, tehre are dozens 

of kinds of flowers.  You can see the Poppy Anemones here.

"White Stock."  These are old standards in a home garden and easily grown.  They stand

about a foot high and come in every color.

One of the many concrete planters in the Heritage Garden.  They are filled with nemesia,

toadflax, snapdragons, bacopa, small tulips, and other flowers.

Flowering Mountain Ash in the English Garden

A visitor beside one of the Chinese Tree Peony bushes.

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