My wife and I have been members of the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe for over 25 years. Over that time, we’ve seen a number of new gardens added: the Japanese Garden, the English Walled Garden, the Enabling Garden, the Prairie Restoration Garden, the Waterfall Garden, and others. Each space is different. Last winter as I walked around the construction, I looked forward to the opening of the Escalande Garden in the large lawn leading down from the education center to the lagoon. Yesterday I saw it for the first time.
Frankly, it is very disappointing. The overly-large areas give the garden a Soviet-era feel. Perhaps to fully create the mood a giant statue of Lenin might be perfect (and these are surely available cheap from eastern European sources). Even on Mother’s Day at 3 p.m., one of the most crowded times of the year, the overall scale seemed too large for the crowd.
There were large masses of tulips blooming. The tulips were individually wonderful. Put into such large masses, they seemed designed to impress not so much by artistry as by their sheer number.
The signage indicates this garden has “world-class design”. This in itself is curious. “World-class” is basically a B.S. phrase that means nothing. Furthermore, if the garden is really “world-class”, would they need signs telling you that? I don’t remember signs touting the “world-class” nature of the gardens of Paris, nor are such signs needed. The signs were surely written and ordered before the garden was opened, and written by the garden itself, so the amount of self-congratulation involved is ... world-class.
It’s a wonderful garden and not everybody likes all parts equally. I plan to avoid this part, or maybe focus on the lagoon fountain as I walk through it.
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