The Chicago Botanic Garden is one of the most visited public gardens in the country as it features world-renowned plant collections and displays, as well as a distinguished center for learning and scientific research. It serves the public by promoting the enjoyment, understanding, and conservation of plants and the natural world.
This botanic garden maximizes 385 acres of property through its 24 display gardens and 4 natural areas that are situated on 9 islands surrounded by lakes.

Chicago, being incorporated with the Latin words Urbs in Horto, meaning "city in a garden," further highlights the essence of it name through the Chicago Botanical Gardens. The Chicago Horticultural Society hosted nationally recognized flower and horticultural shows from its beginning and resumed when the society was restarted in 1943.

A development occurred in 1962, with the society?s involvement in creating and managing a new public garden. The Garden had its groundbreaking 1965 and its opening in 1972. With this, a permanent site was created for the purpose of collections, education, and research.

The Garden has hired leading architects from the beginning, John O. Simonds and Geoffrey Rausch, Edward Larabee Barnes, Sansho-En, and Booth Hansen.