Chicago Botanic Garden Spring 2019

80 chicagobotanic.org Baptisia ‘ unar Eclipse’ a Chicagoland Grows® introduction is winter, the Chicago Botanic Garden celebrated the opening of the Robert F. Finke Green- houses at the Kris Jarantoski Campus, and in 2019, our focus shifts to planning the Campus’s shade evaluation garden. is new garden space continues the Garden’s tradition of ornamen- tal plant research and evaluation to help develop and de ne the best plants for Midwest gar- dens like yours and ours. We expect to start building Wirtz International’s dramatic garden in spring 2020 and complete it in fall 2021. is garden will be the rst public garden in the United States from the much- acclaimed Belgian rm and principal Peter Wirtz. In addition, landscape architect Heidi Na- tura of Chicago’s Living Habitats is designing the shoreline restoration adjacent to the new garden. is coordinated approach will result in a re ned marriage of land and water along this important edge and underscore the Garden’s commitment to ecological restoration. e shade garden will nearly triple the space for our successful and long-standing plant evalu- ation program and provide a stunning context in which to conduct it. But our plant evaluation program began in 1985 and is the longest-running such program of its kind in the United States. Richard Hawke, the Garden’s plant evaluation manager and associate scientist, has headed the program since its beginning, and the results of his years-long, comparative studies are detailed in more than 40 reports on our web- site. Confused by the myriad painted ferns? Richard’s report vividly explains the subtle di erences. Want to know the most mildew-resistant garden phlox for our area? Richard looked at 80 di erent varieties for nine years to nd out. His keen eye—and patience—yields science that is applicable to both the home gardener and green industry professional. Visit the Bernice E. Lavin Plant Evaluation Garden to see all of our ongoing evaluations, and com- pare for yourself. Also in the Lavin Evaluation Garden are the trials for our ornamental plant breeding work. Since 1995, James R. Ault, Ph.D., Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Director of Ornamental Research, has been focused on creating complex hybrids of native perennials that show enhanced vigor and durability to match their exquisite beauty. A side bene t of the multiple crosses and backcrosses that Jim makes to produce these plants is that many are also “mules” and do not produce fertile o spring that can accidentally overwhelm their garden neighbors or escape cultivation. Jim produced the rst orange cone ower (now common) and more recently, a plethora of false indigo (Baptisia) introductions. e latter are amazingly tough, long-lived, and free-blooming plants with a broad range of ower colors. Jim Ault is a household name, if your household happens to include a plant breeder, and his work posi- tively impacts the nursery industry and provides tangible, useful (and lovely) results. His plants reach the con- sumer market through Chicagoland Grows®, in which we partner with the Morton Arboretum and the Ornamen- tal Growers Association of Northern Illinois. You should plant some today. ese two scientists embody just two of the discreet but in uential ways in which the Chicago Botanic Garden ful lls our mission: We cultivate the power of plants to sustain and enrich life. Fred Spicer, executive vice president and director This season in the Garden Here’s how we know which plants work best