Garden Destinations: Visit The Morton Arboretum

Flower & Garden Magazine, August, 1999 by Adele Kleine

Sunlight pierced budding tree branches and highlighted the leaf litter below. May apples, Dutchman's breeches, shooting star, bluebells and trillium emerged through scattered leaves in the woods. Ecstatic at the sight, this city child leaped from her car for a closer look. This was the first time I had ever been in the woods and saw the wildflowers I had only read about. The year was 1962, and it was my first visit to The Morton Arboretum.

Although I have been to Morton Arboretum many times since then, I returned this past spring on a clear, crisp, sunny day. I happily drove through those same untouched woods carpeted with leaves and wildflowers, experiencing that identical sense of wonder at the outdoor world I felt on my initial visit.

That these woods exist at all is the work of Joy Morton, of Morton Salt Co. In 1927, inspired after a visit to Arnold Arboretum in Boston, he began the process of transforming 175 acres of his Thornhill summer estate in Lisle, Illinois, (about 25 miles west of Chicago) into an arboretum. His interest in trees came about naturally, growing up in a household where the family motto was "Plant Trees," and with a father who originated Arbor Day and served as the first Secretary of Agriculture. Putting his plan into effect, the arboretum consisted of 735 acres with two lakes and a general layout and landscape plan by the time Joy Morton died in 1934.

Since that time, Morton Arboretum has developed into a world class museum of trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants totaling 1,700 acres. There are 500 acres of plant collections and gardens, and 900 acres of woods and lakes, comprising plants representing 3,300 different species. It showcases a changing panorama of plants suitable for the upper Midwest in mixed environments: deciduous and evergreen woods, savannahs, glades, meadows, prairies and wetlands. Geographical collections group plants from the Ozarks, Appalachia, central and western North America, Europe and Northeast Asia -- all this on 11 miles of roads and 12 miles of hiking trails. The collections of plants from Russia, China, the Balkans and Northeast Asia are the largest in the United States.

From an entrance on Lisle's Route 53, the visitor suddenly enters a world of nature in sharp contrast to the commercial world surrounding it. The short drive to the landscaped parking area immerses you in this plant world, and the feeling is reinforced on the walk to the Visitor Center, the hub of the arboretum.

In this immediate area is the Information Center and the Gingko Gift Shop and Restaurant, which overlooks Meadow Lake (one of a half dozen lakes). Nearby, the Administration & Research Building and the Library, with its serene outdoor reading room, open to a vista of a formal garden where four white columns commemorate the four Morton brothers. Here visitors are introduced to the newly reconstructed gardens. A groundcover garden features plants suitable for shade, semishade and sunny situations. Examples of hedge plants line the hedge garden, and a peony walk includes new cultivars, tree peonies and rare fern leaf varieties. All the plants in these gardens bear labels with enough interpretive signs to satisfy any gardener's curiosity. A short walking trail around the lake introduces visitors to the longer arboretum trails.

Each season brings its own special pleasures to the more than 300,000 annual visitors. Early spring begins with breaking buds and the yellow flowers of Cornelian Cherry dogwoods (Cornus mas). The sun lights a Wordsworthian host of 150,000 golden daffodils blooming in the 25-acre glade near Lake Marmo. With lilacs sweetening the air, heavy traffic stalls to enjoy the scent. The crab trees are so heavily covered with flowers that you need to wait for petal drop for a chance to study the shapes of newer cultivars free of apple scab.

Summer brings maturing growth, welcome shade, flowering perennials, family trail days, children's programs and explorations of plants and animals in the Schulenberg Prairie.

In autumn, changing leaf colors from yellow-gold to burgundy appear as maples fire the sky. Since trees from around the world are collected here, the arboretum has an exceptionally long color parade from mid-September to mid-November. This makes fall the most heavily visited season. Brown oak leaves linger until winter snow and ice dance across the trees' branches and drip on the remnants of prairie grass. In winter, the arboretum takes on a linear beauty, bringing out the cross-country skiers and photographers.

In the past, the main thrust of the arboretum has been to fulfill the goal of encouraging the planting and conservation of trees and other plants. Having now passed its 75th birthday, the arboretum has a new master plan, which aims at attracting more people to the garden. "The arboretum has a remarkable history of programs and activities dedicated to research, collections, education and the enjoyment of nature's wonders," said Gerard T. Donnelly, Ph.D., the arboretum's executive director. But now, "based on expanding populations and environmental challenges in the 21st century, it's critical that we focus our efforts to extend the reach and impact of our resources to a larger and more diverse audience."