Glore House Garden

About

The Glore House Garden surrounds the only Frank Lloyd Wright home in Lake Forest. Completed in 1954, the Charles Glore Jr. house is an example of Wright's later"Usonian" style and reflects several of his design principles. The home "frames" the landscape and is built into the "brow" of the slope to the Mayflower Ravine which surrounds the house. The home sits on 2 acres. Wright's ambition was to create naturalistic rather than formal landscapes. Wright liked to bring prairie wildflowers into his cultivated gardens (milkweed, purple coneflower, switchgrass), and preferred tall plants such as Joe Pye weed and yellow prairie dock. He used native paper birch trees because of the contrast provided by their white bark in woodland settings (they reflected moonlight). Fallingwater, his residential masterpiece, employs native red buds and dogwoods. Wright loved roses, and preferred wild and old-fashioned varieties to hybrids. Old trees were also a part of his landscape aesthetic and reminded him of Welsh landscapes. We have tried to capture Wright's landscape design preferences into our garden. There are birch trees, a rose garden, and perennial flower beds dominated by native plants. One flower bed is overseen by a garden Sprite, a statue designed by Wright for the Midway Gardens. We have also incorporated redbud and whitebud trees to complement our massive white oak trees. Beech trees are some of our favorites; we have added copper and American beeches. Our garden design and choice of plant materials are the result of collaboration between two remarkable plantsmen: Roy Diblik and Craig Bergmann. Roy designed the Shedd Aquarium waterfront garden, the Louis Sullivan Arch Garden and, with Piet Oudolf, the Lurie Garden in Millennium Park as well as New York City's High Line. Roy's design practice is guided by the belief in sustainable plant communities for all seasons, relying on native plants, grasses, and sedges. Roy operates Northwind Perennial Farm in Burlington, WI. Craig is an award-winning and visionary designer located here in Lake Forest but engaged in projects nationally. Craig's talented team maintains the garden and consults with Roy on plant selection.

This garden's estimated size is 1 acre.

2025 Open Day: Saturday, July 12

Hours: 10-4

Registrations are nonrefundable and nontransferable . Open Days are rain or shine events. Click here for FAQs.