chicagoland grows®
About the Plant Introduction Program
Established in 1986, Chicagoland Grows is a unique partnership among the Chicago Botanic Garden, The Morton Arboretum, and the Ornamental Growers Association of Northern Illinois (OGA), dedicated to developing, selecting, testing, and marketing a diversity of plants from landscape trees to shrubs, perennials, and grasses, all well adapted to midwestern and equivalent landscapes.
The program’s success is due to the complementary resources each of the three partners contributes to the collaboration.
The Chicago Botanic Garden’s plant breeding program has contributed seven perennial selections to Chicagoland Grows, with many more perennial plants currently undergoing propagation and nursery trials, while the Garden’s plant evaluation program systematically evaluates the Chicagoland Grows plants and provides practical data such as bloom dates, disease and pest resistance, growth rates, and other ornamental attributes that are used to select and market the plants.
The Morton Arboretum has contributed nine trees and six shrubs to Chicagoland Grows, with many more promising woody plants from its historic collections, plant exploration trips (both national and international), and its breeding and selection program all being evaluated for potential introduction.
The individual OGA nurseries have contributed plants to the program, conduct propagation and field and container trials of potential new introductions, and are in the vanguard of bringing the program’s selections to the marketplace by growing, marketing, and selling high-quality specimens of the plants to landscape contractors, other nurseries, and garden centers throughout the Chicago region, the Midwest, and beyond.
The program has licensed well over one hundred additional wholesale and retail nurseries and commercial tissue culture laboratories throughout the United States and in other countries to bring the Chicagoland Grows introductions to landscapes with comparable climates literally around the world.
If you are interested in becoming a licensed propagator and grower of the Chicagoland Grows plant introductions, you can contact the program manager:
Jim Ault, Plant Introduction Manager
Chicago Botanic Garden
Phone: (847) 835-8244
Fax: (847) 835-5484
Email:
Chicagoland Grows®, Inc. Plant Introduction Program is a partnership of
