Arboretum Up and Spit Em Out

Another Quoi
While doing research on the Round Barns, I spent some time studying the general lay of the land on Google Maps. A hasty click-and-drag took me farther east of the Round Barns than I intended to go, and I saw something bizarre, irregularities in the map that couldn't be explained away by country clubs, subdivisions, or campus buildings.

See what I mean:

After a bit of Googling, I realized I had stumbled into the Arboretum, consisting of the Japan House (with the serpentine pond to the south), the Hartley Gardens (which look like a helicopter landing pad on the map), and the Idea Garden. A week or so later, I drove over to the Arboretum, quite unprepared for what I found.

Like most of the CU, the Arboretum functions as a "living laboratory" for the University, allowing academic botanists and master gardeners from the community to experiment with and study plant life.

Two Ridiculous Things:

1. This whole place is completely free of charge. You just park and wander around as long as you want.
2. It's huge. My pictures don't convey how much space this area covers.

I'm not the most adept at taking stunning pictures, and these were all taken late in the day, but this place is mind-blowing. Caveat Lector: This is mostly a picture post with not a lot of commentary. I kept the pictures small for space, but you can always click on them to blow them up.

Welcome Garden
After you park, but before you can enter the Hartley Gardens, you pass through a small Welcome Garden. All the plants in this garden and the Hartley are species that are grown in the US. Not all are native, but they've all become common.

All throughout they have some touches that made me feel at home: plants from Texas. Here they had some Papyrus (Cyperus papyrus):

Ornamental Peppers (Capsicum annuum):

And the best Texas flower OF ALL TIME, Lantana (Lantana camara):

They've planted a line of trees to shield the Hartley Gardens from the rest of the world:

Hartley Gardens
From there, you enter the Hartley Gardens, 3 acres of annual and perennial American Plants. These shots, hopefully, show you the size and diversity of the gardens:

In the far background of this next picture, you can see the President's House, home of the UofI President. Built in the Georgian Revival style in 1931 (the middle of the Great Depression), it cost $225 thousand. That's $3.5 million in Today Dollars. President at the time, Harry Woodburn Chase (if that's not a rich guy's name, I don't know what is) moved into the house and it has served as home to the university president and his family up to current president, Robert A. Easter. Imagine having the Arboretum in your backyard.

So, here's the crazy part. They laid these beds out by species, with separate rows for each cultivar. Walking through the Hartley Gardens feels like walking through a flower encyclopedia.

This bed has something like 15 different types of Impatiens (Impatiens walleriana). Just count the little gray signs.

In another spot, they planted 20 different types of Marigolds (Tagetes sp.).

Idea Garden
Across a wide field of grass, the compact little Idea Garden sits alone. The Idea Garden features borders, ornamentals, and vegetables.

They had some Back Home plants here as well. Succulents:

Aloe vera:

And Horse Tail (Equisetum sp.):

The Idea Garden had a lot of very surprising little nooks and crannies.

This garden is part of a community outreach program, so they have a spot just for kids.

They also have the Patriot Garden, planted with red, white, and blue species.

Grass Track
Winding through the entire Arboretum area, a grass track, lined only with spray paint like they use on football fields, stretches a mile or more for those who want to run, jog, or walk on grass. Notice the tiny person in the distant mid-ground of the second picture.

Japan House
Post Coming Soon.