Along a Path Less Traveled at the Chicago Botanic Garden, Plants Are Being Evaluated on Beauty and Brawn

Flowers are grown, data is collected and some flowers are determined to grow better in the upper midwest.

Visitors walk through the the Mitsuzo and Kyoko Shida Evaluation Garden at the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe, Illinois on Oct. 4, 2023. Trent Sprague/Chicago Tribune/TNS

By Adriana Pérez From Chicago Tribune

The dull visual of a long road is interrupted by a gravel footpath that winds back and forth across the pavement, tiny rocks turning to bricks when the path crosses the asphalt. But the eye is drawn to something else: not the trail, but the greenery growing on its fringes.