Explore display houses and outdoor gardens where plants are accessible, understandable and fun during your visit to the Garfield Park Conservatory. Exclusive arts, plants, gifts and books are available in the Garfield Park Conservatory Gift Shop.
Display Houses
Aroid House
Step into the Aroid House. At its core is a Persian Pool with yellow lily pads surrounding a serene lagoon created by world renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly. Encircling the Persian Pool is a variety of aroids that every indoor gardener will recognize.
Desert House
Discover fascinating forms, the promise of brilliant, short-lived flowers and their ability to withstand harsh and dry conditions. Within the Desert House you will find one of the region’s most varied collections of cacti and succulents ranging in size from tiny living stone plants to large pencil trees.
Fern Room
See what Illinois looked like millions of years ago in the Chicago conservatory’s Fern Room. Created by Jens Jensen in 1906, the Fern Room features ferns, rocky outcroppings and an indoor lagoon. Highlighted in the Fern Room are cycads, ancient cone-bearing plants.
Horticulture Hall
Horticulture Hall regularly hosts flower shows and is considered one of the top ten venues in Chicago. While twinkling lights lure visitors in during the winter, fragrant, brightly-colored flowers is what draws visitors during the spring and summer.
Palm House
A tropical paradise featuring palm trees intermingled with a variety of other towering tropic plants awaits you in Garfield Park Conservatory’s Palm House. Of particular importance is the Palm House’s Sheelea Palm, one of the largest of its kind in any conservatory in the nation.
Show House
During the spring, summer and winter you can delight in spectacular flower shows in the Show House. All plant materials displayed in the shows are grown at the Conservatory.
Sugar From the Sun
Sugar From the Sun is four exotic botanical environments. Wander the unique spaces and discover how plants capture sunlight and use it to change small parts of air and water into sugar, the energy that sustains life on Earth.
Outdoor Gardens at the Garfield Conservatory
City Garden
Behind the Garfield Park Conservatory, City Garden beautifully blends hardy plantings, garden “communities” and recycled bits of cityscape. As you wander deeper into the garden, it becomes clearer its urban greening is explored through multiple mediums, from its structures to its materials and plantings. Additionally the City Garden provides an important link in an ever-growing web of boulevards, gardens and open spaces scattered beyond its borders.
Demonstration Garden
Be sure to visit Garfield Park Conservatory’s Demonstration Garden, a beautiful city-lot-sized working garden where you can learn about community and organic gardening in Chicago. Theme areas within the garden illustrate urban agriculture, beekeeping, composting and other techniques used to grow food, the community and beauty in city spaces.
Monet Garden
See an interpretation of Claude Monet’s renowned garden in Giverny, France. Monet Garden was originally created as an indoor display for the 2000 Flower and Garden Show at Navy Pier and later moved to Garfield Park Conservatory. Highlights of Monet Garden include espaliered fruit trees, the wisteria standards and a picnic area beneath crab apple trees.
Stop by Garfield Park Conservatory’s Gift Shop. Hand-crafted botanical arts made with real specimens from the conservatory’s plant collection; potted plants from the conservatory’s Desert House, Aroid Room and other exhibits; jewelry; books and toys; posters and stationery; and Garfield Park Conservatory’s exclusive blend of ground coffee are available to purchase. Additionally, the Conservatory Gift Shop sells a selection of sandwiches, salads, desserts and beverages.
Travel Tip
- Do not forget your camera. Visitors are welcome to take personal photographs at the Garfield Park Conservatory.