A Garden Vacation

In the Garden with Andrew

Lurie Garden. Photo: Andrew Bunting

Andrew Bunting. Photo courtesy of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.

I feel fortunate to have my livelihood, my passion, and my pastime revolve around gardening. I have always looked forward to going to work. I always look forward to gardening at the end of the day. On weekends, I enjoy going to see private and public gardens and garden centers. And for my whole adult life, visiting gardens has been a significant part of most of my vacations. I have been fortunate to be able to see beautiful home gardens public gardens—both large and small—on every continent except Antarctica. People of all socioeconomic groups and ethnicities engage in gardening. It truly is a global pursuit.

This week, I am in Chicago to attend meetings for the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, but traveled there early and will stay through the weekend to try to see as much gardening as possible. If you like gardening, you can pretty much find great public gardens, parks and garden walks and tours wherever you might go. From early spring to late fall, I often consult the Garden Conservancy’s “open days” to find out which private gardens are open on which weekends. The Garden Conservancy is a national organization that helps preserve significant gardens, and their “open days” program both promotes gardening and serves as a fundraiser for them.  

Ripley Garden. Photo: Andrew Bunting

The other day, a colleague of mine posted images on Instagram from Buffalo’s Garden Walk event, which offers a look at hundreds of private gardens every summer. Locally, we have America’s Garden Capital, Greater Philadelphia Gardens, a consortium of 37 gardens within a 50-mile radius of Philadelphia. If you go to Washington, D.C., be sure to visit the gardens of the Smithsonian. This collective includes wonderful gardens at many of your favorite museums, including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Native Landscape at the National Museum of the American Indian, the Enid A. Haupt Garden at the Smithsonian Castle and—adjacent to the castle—my favorite: the Mary Livingston Ripley Garden. In Massachusetts, The Trustees maintain nine gardens, including Fletcher Steele’s famous Naumkeag.

In Chicago, great horticulture is everywhere. When Richard Daley became mayor in 1989, he found that focusing on horticulture could quickly transform a city, and he became known as the “botanical mayor.” Today, Chicago’s horticulture is featured in parks, avenue plantings, and containers on major thoroughfares—and many businesses and restaurants have great seasonal plantings.

When in Chicago, I always visit Millennium Park in the heart of Chicago. Great gardening abounds in the park, especially in the Lurie Garden, which was designed by the famed Dutch garden designer, Piet Oudolf (who also designed the High Line in New York City.) This prairie-esque design is beautifully juxtaposed against the Chicago skyline. There are also two classic conservatories in Chicago city parks that are worth a visit, including the Lincoln Park Conservatory and especially the Garfield Park Conservatory, which has a fernery designed by Jens Jensen.

The Chicagoland area boasts two of the best botanical institutions in the United States. West of Chicago is the massive Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois. This 1,800-acre arboretum rivals the famous Arnold Arboretum at Harvard for the breadth and depth of the woody plant collections. And to the north, in Glencoe, is the Chicago Botanic Garden, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year. It has a 350-acre campus with a human-made prairie. The garden comprises many islands and lakes and myriad gardens, including plant evaluations, a rose garden, an English walled garden, a fruit and vegetable garden, a Japanese garden, and a complex of conservatories.

Hirshhorn Garden. Photo: Andrew Bunting

On this visit, I will also make a side trip to Madison, Wisconsin, where I love visiting the Olbrich Botanical Garden, which has been called “the Chanticleer of the Midwest.”

Send your gardening questions to editor@swarthmorean.com. Put “Garden” in the subject line.

Andrew Bunting is vice president of public horticulture at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and vice president of the Swarthmore Horticultural Society.