Chicago Botanic Garden Fall 2020

Meeting the challenges of caring for our living museum Gardening is all about em- bracing change. In spring, you watch as the bulbs you planted last fall emerge strongly but are not quite the color you were expect- ing. You wait for flower buds to form and open to see if the combinations you dreamed about actually happen. This year has been about changes the COVID-19 health crisis forced us to make as we care for the Garden, the acceptance of new ways to work, and the Garden’s appearance now that we have reopened. We began spring with the bare essen- tials: enough horticulture staff to keep plants alive. We slowly increased num- bers to focus on time-sensitive work like essential pruning and removing insulating manure from our rose collec- tion. Garden ecologists worked hard in our natural areas to find and remove garlic mustard, buckthorn, and many other invaders before they set seed. By midsummer, our horticultural team was back to nearly full strength, all the while paying strict attention to govern- ment guidance for safety. The spring annuals display was quickly composted when the sad realization of “no visitors to see it” sunk in. Our pro- duction team immediately pivoted to producing summer (and fall!) displays, with the hope that someone would. That hope united everyone to prepare for reopening. Our 385 acres contain a living muse- um, filled with plants that are under cultivation and natural areas that need tending. Without maintenance, the value of our living collection would rapidly diminish, and we would quick- ly lose the integrity of our designed outdoor spaces. In our natural areas, letting even one invasive plant set seed would lead to an exponentially greater problem next year, impacting hundreds of native plant species in our natural areas and the pollinators and wildlife that depend on them. Like objects in any museum, plants in the Garden’s permanent collection are documented, and the documentation must be updated regularly. These plants also contain valuable genetic material important as a resource for conserva- tion and breeding. We need to keep those plants alive, and beyond that, the genius of our gardens’ designers intact. All of this presented challenges with the closing of the Garden. While the safety of our staff and valued volunteers (the vast majority have not returned) is our priority, our business depends on visitors, and we’ve spent decades creat- ing unique and memorable experiences for them. What does the Garden look like now that we’ve reopened? It’s different. “There are more weeds,” has become the shorthand to describe it. Many might not see past that but it goes deeper: our level of gardening has been diminished. Fine pruning, deadhead- ing, staking, training, grooming, re- moving dead plants, amending beds with sustainable soil protocols, pur- chasing new plants to replace the dead ones, making new plant combinations, watering, mulching, edging beds, and just generally cleaning up—it’s all hap- pening, but a lot more gradually now, with fewer resources in the new normal. Still, every day our horticulturists and plant production team reset their pri- orities and ask themselves, “What can we do to make the Garden more beau- tiful?” And what they have accom- plished is amazing. There isn’t the same kind of plant diversity in our garden displays that we are used to, and shrubs in need of pruning, and some shaggy bed edges, and projects deferred, and— yes!—a gross overabundance of weeds. But the Garden is beautiful. Breathtak- ing. Incredible. You should come and see for yourself. I’m a gardener, and I love plants because they teach us about being steadfast, true to our nature, and resil- ient. Just like the oaks in the McDon- ald Woods leaf out every year, the Chicago Botanic Garden is emerging from our recent closure to offer beauty and respite for all. —Fred Spicer, executive vice president and director of the Garden This season in the Garden Tending to the Thomas English Walled Garden 48 chicagobotanic.org