I didn’t expect Illinois to feel this lush the first time I started seeking out its botanical spaces. Between road trips and quiet afternoon drives, I kept finding gardens and conservatories that felt like entire climates preserved under glass or carefully shaped across open land.
Some were warm and humid in the middle of winter, others built around still ponds, stone paths, and seasonal blooms that changed the mood completely depending on when I arrived.
I began to notice how each place carried its own rhythm, butterflies drifting through filtered light, the scent of soil and orchids in enclosed air, the sound of water moving through landscaped streams…