Plant Theater for May Day

 A Plant Theater, according to the Chicago Botanic Garden is a traditional English presentation of exceptional plants. The plants are potted and placed on tiers of shelves to highlight a collection of the same plant.  They can have 3 to 5 shelves and are ususally decoratively framed. Herbs, flowers, succulents can all be part of these seasonal display areas. 

I like the more traditional shape and design of a Plant Theater with crown molding and an almost inside the house look, but any set of shelves on which you display plants will work.

Here area few different images of the Plant Theater at the Chicago Botanic Garden.  For those familiar with the garden, the Plant Theater is located by one of the entrances to the English Walled Garden.  As it is one of the places at the Botanic Garden with a number of herbs as well as a relaxing formal organization, I enjoy stopping there every time I visit the Botanic Garden.

These are all Mums taken in October 2020.  During lock down in 2020 we visited the botanic garden every month during the season when it was open to the public to enjoy an excursion outdoors.  We picked different areas to explore, but came back often to the English Walled Garden.

It has other attributes besides the Plant Theater, There is a a stairway filled with scented geraniums.

There are sculpted garden shrubs surrounded by seasonal plants

I love to walk between plants, reach down and touch them with the tips of my fingers.  Besides my raised hill garden where I do that all the time, this public garden is a place I can do it as well.  They have brick paths lined on each side with a selection of scented herbs. Some have great texture like soft fuzz lambs ear varieties, or strong scent like garlic chives. And of course there are a number of different thyme plants.

The Plant Theater was originally installed in 2019 and is changed regularly by the horticultural staff. so I have a number of images of it. You can see the spring bulbs, like these grape Hyacinth in Spring and succulents in late fall. Last summer they had Mini Hostas.

The Walled Garden is a must see and here is why I started visiting. They have a Sundial.  I am obsessed with Sundials, I want more than one in my garden, so I collect images to decide what style I want.

For details on my Sundial search, check out my previous posts.

The Sundial in the Walled English Garden is a horizontal sundial with an equatorial spike, rather than a wedge which allows you to read the time in simmer and winter.

Enjoy this May Day with a trip through the garden, real or virtual!