Garfield Park Conservatory

The Desert House holds one of the region's most varied collections of cacti and succulents. These plants owe their popularity to their spectacular and unique forms, the promise of brilliant, short-lived flowers and their ability to withstand harsh, dry conditions. The size of plants in this room varies from the tiny living stone plant to the large century plants.

The Desert House will close to the public on Monday, March 3, 2014 and will remain closed until construction is completed. Construction is slated to be completed in late fall, but because this is a very complex construction project, this may change. These renovations are following the June 30, 2011 hailstorm that caused unprecedented damage to the Conservatory. Learn more about the Conservatory restoration project on our Back to Glass page.

The Desert House is Closed for Repairs.

This Desert House has gone through the most functional changes of all the original rooms in the Conservatory. When the building opened in 1908, this space was called the Economic House and featured many product-worthy plants. Then, in 1917, the Economic House moved to what is now the Children's Garden and this room became the Bay House. During the winter months, it was used to store outdoor plants brought in from gardens and field houses around the city. In the summer, when the Bay House was empty, plants from the adjacent Economic House would spill over into this space. In 1928, the Bay House, with its cool, dry climate, found staying power when it became the Succulent House (later renamed the Desert House). On September 20, 1940, the Desert House garnered special attention when the Conservatory stayed open until midnight so that the pubic could experience a profusion of night-blooming cacti.

25-Foot-High Century Plant

The name of the Century Plant is misleading, as the average life span of this Agave is actually around twenty-five years old. Whatever its name, the life of this plant is interesting in that its 25-foot-high flower stalk blooms only once, right before the plant dies. Save the date of 2025, when you might catch them in their once-in-a-lifetime bloom.

Weird Welwitschia

There is truly nothing like the Welwitschia plant in the world. It is the only member of its plant family, it goes through an extremely long life (up to 2000 years) with the same two leaves, and it gets most of the moisture it needs to survive from the coastal fogs of southwestern Africa (the only place where it grows naturally).Our Welwitschia, grown from South African seeds at the University of Chicago, is a relatively young female plant. Keep in mind that, with proper care, it could outlive not only you, but your great, great, great, great, great, great grandchildren!