Bus Trip 2019 Highlights
 

The Club's first-ever overnight bus trip left promptly at 7:30 a.m. on Monday, June 10th, 2019.  After a brief rest stop, we rolled into the Lincoln Memorial Garden in Springfield and were greeted by Joel Horwedel, Executive Director of the Lincoln Memorial Garden. We ate our lunches on an authentic Jens Jensen council ring in beautiful weather and afterward toured the garden with Joel.

​

 

Next we visited the Washington Park Botanical Gardens consisting of 9,000 square feet of greenhouse area and a conservatory featuring more than 150 species of tropical plants.  We then visited three beautiful and whimsical private gardens and even toured two of the homes!

​

 

On day two, we shopped ... starting out at a large nursery in Springfield, then heading over to Decatur to an independent nursery with 9 idea gardens.  After all the shopping, and with the bus filled to capacity, the members and guests had lunch at the Greenhouse Café on the Allerton Park & Retreat Center grounds in Monticello.  The weather was with us again as we meandered through all the formal and experimental gardens on the property. The sculptures throughout were stunning. 

​

 

To close out the day, our last stop was the University of Illinois Arboretum. We were guided through the arboretum by Diane Anderson, recipient of one of the Club’s scholarships in 2000.  

​

​

After a brief rest and shopping excursion at a nearby Cracker Barrel, we headed home and concluded the trip with Sangria, cheese, and sausage snacks.  Due to the food committee’s careful planning, we were never hungry throughout the trip.