Butterflies & Bloom at the Chicago Botanical Gardens

Better hurry, the Butterflies & Blooms exhibition is only open until September 2, 2013. On my last trip to Chicago, I had the chance to tour the gardens and see this wonderful exhibit that allows visitors a chance to immerse themselves in a special butterfly habitat.
It is amazing to see the colorful butterflies fly and flit from plant to plant. The butterflies include species native to South America, Asia, North America, and Africa, as well as those native to Illinois. Letting in only a few people at a time, the exhibit is not crowded and it is a small space filled with flowers and butterflies of all the colors of the rainbow.
The enclosure is a 2,800-square-foot white mesh located on the lawn of the Botanical Garden’s Learning Campus. “It’s a great garden theme for kids,” says Tim Pollak, outdoor floriculturist for the Chicago Botanic Garden. “The whole metamorphosis (physical transformation) is wonderful to observe.”
My friend Linda and I enjoyed every aspect of this beautiful exhibit that began May 25th. The exhibit is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, weather permitting with the last ticket sold at 4:45 p.m. The Chicago Botanic Garden is located at 1000 Lake Cook Road, Glencoe, IL 60022. For more information, call (847) 835-5440 or log onto http://www.chicagobotanic.org/butterflies/gardening.
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