The Chicago Botanic Garden is a 385-acre living museum in Glencoe, Illinois, operated by the Chicago Horticultural Society as a public-private partnership with the Forest Preserves of Cook County. Tracing its institutional roots to the Chicago Horticultural Society (founded 1890) and opened on its current site in 1972, the Garden is open free to the public year-round and features 27 display gardens and four natural areas, including a rare midwestern prairie. Its mission is to cultivate the power of plants to sustain and enrich life.
The Garden’s science arm, the Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science and Action, is one of the largest plant-conservation programs in the country. Its work spans preventing extinctions, training the next generation of plant scientists, restoring rare plant habitats, and scaling up the production of native seed for ecological restoration across the Midwest. The Garden also operates the Regenstein School, which delivers K–12, adult, and certificate programs in horticulture, botanical arts, and plant science, and leads urban agriculture and community gardening initiatives across the Chicago region.
Through this combination of public garden, conservation research institution, and educator, the Chicago Botanic Garden advances the role of plants in addressing climate change, biodiversity loss, and ecological restoration — central pillars of the IUCN mission.
