One of my very favorite gardens at the Chicago Botanic Garden is the Circle Garden. The Circle Garden, named because its outer boundary forms a circle, features a dancing fountain in the center and four identical beds of flowers in each corner. There are two secret gardens connected to the central gardens by curved arbors. Each season the plantings of the Circle Garden change. Spring brings beds of colorful tulips and mixes of annuals, scrubs and flowering trees. The summer plantings are bold and colorful - tall sunflowers, canna lilies, zinnias, dahlias, snapdragons, rudbeckia and salvia, to name a few. It is lush and bursting with every color of the rainbow. The hummingbirds and butterflies frequent these gardens in the late summer. When fall arrives the beds will be full of mums, marigolds, decorative cabbages, grasses and other fall plantings. It is a garden that never disappoints; in fact, it will take your breath away. It is equally fun to photograph the variety of flowers up close or put on a wide angle lens and capture the beauty of the whole garden.
Zinnia
Dahlia with early morning dew
Bold and colorful dahlia
Coreopsis
Dahlia