Joliet Area Garden Club | www.jolietgardenclub.com
The Joliet Area Garden Club meets on the second Tuesday of every month at the Barber & Oberwortmann Horticultural Center on Gouger Road, about 1/2 mile north of Route 30. At each meeting, guest speakers discuss all aspects of gardening at the homeowner level. The public is welcome at JAGC meetings and membership is open.

Kankakee Kultivators | www.kankakeekultivators.com
Garden club focusing on horticultural, conservational, and environmental education for members and community.

Kankakee Valley Garden Club
A member of District VIII, the Garden Clubs of Illinois and the National Council of State Garden Clubs, the Kankakee Valley Garden Club meets the fourth Thursday of the month at the Bird Park Fieldhouse in Kankakee. Call 815.933.8961 or 815.939.0134 for more information.

Palos Heights Garden Club | phgc.smugmug.com
The object and purpose of the Palos Heights Garden Club, is to promote gardening by sharing knowledge, talent and resources and to develop community pride, environmental concerns and a sense of fulfillment.

Educational Resources

University of Illinois Extension, Champaign County | extension.uiuc.edu/champaign
Through learning partnerships that put knowledge to work, U of I Extension’s programs are aimed at making life better, healthier, safer and more profitable for individuals and their communities. U of I Extension offers educational programs in five broad areas:Healthy society, food security and safety, environmental stewardship, sustainable and profitable food production and marketing systems, and enhancing youth, family and community well-being.

Illinois Master Gardeners | www.extension.uiuc.edu/mg/welcome.html
Master Gardeners are a group of volunteers trained by University of Illinois Extension educators to provide a network of gardening programs and horticultural activities to educate the public and enhance life in their communities.

National Gardening Association | www.garden.org
The National Gardening Association (NGA), founded in 1973, is a nonprofit leader in plant-based education. They serve a national audience with timely materials designed to foster an appreciation for the benefits of gardening.

Gardens and Arboretums

Cantigny Park, Wheaton | cantignypark.com
Upon his death in 1955, Col. Robert McCormick had instructed in his will that the 500 acre estate at Cantigny be used in a manner that would be “… for the recreation, instruction and welfare of the people of the State of Illinois.” In 1967, the board of trustees overseeing the Cantigny Estate, hired one of the country’s foremost landscape architects, Franz Lipp, and charged him with the task of building an important American garden. The garden consists of about forty acres, an extensive use of herbaceous plants including annual and perennial flowers, ground covers and flowering bulbs and a wide variety of trees and shrubs displayed not only in complement to the floral areas, but in an arboretum setting as well. Lipp's purpose for the gardens was to provide a place for the testing of plants, demonstrating their growth habits, blooming periods, color qualities in composition with other plants, as well as their hardiness and life span in the climate of the Midwest.

Chicago Botanic Gardens | www.chicagobotanic.org
The Chicago Botanic Garden is actually 26 gardens in one! From the romantic English Walled Garden to the wild Midwestern Prairie, specialty gardens and native habitat areas show the diverse beauty of nature. The Chicago Botanic Garden is located at 1000 Lake Cook Road in Glencoe, Illinois, approximately 25 miles north of downtown Chicago.

Garfield Park Observatory | www.garfield-conservatory.org
Jens Jensen, the West Side Park Commission's landscape architect, conceived the Conservatory as a series of naturalistic landscapes under glass. The Conservatory building, covering 4.5 acres and housing 4,800 different types of plants, was patterned after the haystacks of the midwest. The separate rooms are named the Palm House, Fern Room, Economic House, Desert House, Aroid House, Sensory Garden, Warm House, Show House and Horticultural. The greenhouses serve as the source of the multitude of plants displayed in Garfield, Lincoln, and Grant Parks.

Klehm Arboretum and Botanical Garden, Rockford | www.klehm.org
Over 150 acres of magnificent trees and plants! Explore this "living museum" every season: majestic colors of fall, hundreds of blooming crabapples in spring, butterfly gardens in summer, and snow-covered evergreens in winter. Klehm Arboretum & Botanic Garden not only changes with the seasons, it is a work in progress being shaped by the imaginations, creativity and commitment of members, volunteers and sponsors.

Luthy Botanical Garden, Peoria | www.peoriaparks.org/luthy/luthymain.html
The George Luthy Memorial Botanical Garden encompasses five acres of beautiful landscaped displays to please every eye and give you ideas for your own gardening endeavors. The Garden also offers a place to escape the rush and stress of everyday life and enjoy a relaxing time in one of Peoria’s most beautiful sites. Garden areas include the Wildlife Garden, the Woodland Garden, Dwarf Conifer and Viburnum collections, the Rose Garden, and our Children’s Garden.

Morton Arboretum, Lisle | www.mortonarb.org
Explore 1,700 acres of beautiful gardens, world-renowned plant collections, and rare and unique natural areas from your car via 9 miles of paved roads and on foot over 14 miles of trails. Enjoy special events year-round, perfect for kids and adults. The visitors center, restaurant, walking & tram tours, hiking, bird walks, natural prairies are open daily.

Miscellaneous

www.gardenweb.com
The Internet's Garden Community. Forums, plant images, shopping links, seed/plant exchange, glossary of botanical terms, and more.

Hardiness Zones
View the official USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map or the more recent version created by the National Arbor Day Foundation.