Visiting the Klehm Botanic Garden - National Garden Month Series

Just so you don't think I have only visited gardens in Indiana I thought today I would explain a garden I visited back in 2013 right here in my home state of Illinois.

I was using my first digital camera that had useful pixels that actually took photos that look good posted anywhere.  Before that the images are so grainy from my 3 or 5 pixel cameras, that I am embarrassed to share most of them.

This is the Klehm Arboretum and Botanic Garden located in Rockford, Illinois.  We stopped by on an early June day back in 2013 when the weather was balmy and sunny and the plants were just hitting their late spring flush. We were out on a road trip to enjoy the lovely day and stopped by when we saw the sign.

I was fascinated with the Children's garden that is dotted with fun interactive ideas and bright colors. I think A to Z gardens are such fun, you often find them in Children's gardens, but as an adult I love the organization of them and the choices the gardeners use for each letter often takes me on fun adventures.

I took way too many photos of the A to Z garden, so I will just share the end of the alphabet with my favorite flower - Zinnia!  If you want to see the details, check out my post from 2013.

A tower in the Children's garden area allowed us to get a bird's eye view of all the fun. They also had a human sized sundial which worked perfectly on that sunny day to tell the correct time of 10:00 AM.

We also enjoyed strolling the Rhododendron and Azalea Dell

and visiting the Demonstration Gardens gave me lovely landscaping ideas.

There was a maze -- love a good maze.

A number of flowering and ornamental trees were also part of the experiences in the arboretum.  Here is hubby pointing at -- I have no idea.

We were there on bring your dog to the arboretum day and we got a lot of comments from visitors asking where our dog was and joked with a couple about being the only folks there without one on that day.

The entrance to the Arboretum with the fountains is really striking and a great wedding venue.  The admission is reasonable and they do have a reciprocal program if you are a member of another arboretum.

This photo courtesy of the Klehm Arboretum and Garden

We just had a wonderful experience walking through the place and catching all the lovely touches they have included in the landscape. Like these edible flowers!

So if you are traveling though northern Illinois, visit the Klehm Arboretum and Garden located at 2715 S. Main Street in Rockford, Illinois.

The next garden in the National Garden Month post is here.

An ABC of herbs from the Klehm Arboretum

In June on one of the fine days we had before the rains started, my husband and I decided to visit the Klehm Arboretum in Rockford, IL.

There were several things there I just loved.  Beyond the experimental garden where they had different plantings and garden ornament which I always love to tour, there was a maze garden and children's garden of ABCs.

I loved this garden because it was a mix of common names and scientific names and they did not even stretch too far to find something for each letter.

For E they used Echinacea, it was too soon to tell it if was the purple variety or not, but that was my guess.  For F they chose Floss Flower Ageratum houstonianum.  I guess I never knew this name for this plant wish is a "Miller," like Dusty Miller, but then I saw it at the Rotary International Garden in Janesville, identified with this same name, so now I think this may be a Midwestern name for it and I still harken back to my Ohio roots when iidentifying plants by common names.

H was a lovely planting of  Hen & Chicks in a ceramic pot with the chicks spreading down to the ground.

J was a plant I had never heard of called Jewels of Opar.  What I discovered was it is Talinum paniculatum, a succulent subshrub in the purslane family. Or in the vernacular, a species of Portulaca or Moss Roses.

Lamb's Ear stood up for L, with Marigolds for M.  Nepeta (catnip) was used for N and  with O being Oenothera or Sundrops.

Windflower represented W, but I was too early to see it flowering. It has a small white pointed five petal flower  Anemone nemorosa is thought to be the flower Adonis turns into after having been torn to pieces by a boar in Ovid's 'Venus and Adonis.'

R was a stand by perennial Rudbeckia, I suspect the usual Black Eyed Susans will be blooming here sooner than their normal fall time.

X was Xanthoriza simplicissima, Yellow Root, a shrubbery that you cannot even see in this photo because it is is so small.

But I found it in another image....

for Y they used the herb Yarrow and Z was for Zinna, one of my favorite flowers.....



The Klehm Arboretum is 155 acres of trees, plants, shrubs and flowers nestled into the south side of Rockford Illinois, at 2715 S. Main Street.  During the Summer they are open 9 am to 8 pm and the admission is very reasonable.  I took more than 100 photos during our trip, so I guarantee there is more to see that what I have shared here.