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ISU Horticulture Center Reveals Dark Side

Jordi Nll
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Flickr via Creative Commons

Interesting things happens in nature once the sun goes down.  The Illinois State University Horticulture Center in Normal reveals the beauty of the nighttime landscape at a brand new event later this week.

'The Nocturnal Garden: Discovering the Beauty of the Night' is Thursday, Aug. 18 from 6 to 10 PM at the ISU Horticulture Center, off Raab Road in Normal.  This is not only a new event, said Center director Jessica Chambers, it's a rare one, allowing guests to experience the Horticulture Center after dark. "Usually at the Horticulture Center, it's open from dawn to dusk. So once that sun goes down, everybody's supposed to be gone. This is the very first time in eleven years that we've opened it up in the evening."  

Credit Laura Kennedy / WGLT
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WGLT
Jessica Chambers, from the ISU Horticulture Center, stopped by the GLT studios with some of the flowers from the Center.

The event features opportunities to stroll through the moon garden and admire the white flowers as they're set off against the darkness.  Zookeepers from Miller Park Zoo in Bloomington will stop by with a nocturnal animal (which Chambers is hoping will be an owl) and ISU biologists talk about how gardens come to life at night with a variety of tiny creatures. There's also a chance to make s'mores in this family event.

Chambers said the night garden holds delights we don't see in the day, referencing  poet Wendell Berry that to know the dark, you must go into it without any light.

Reporter, content producer and former All Things Considered host, Laura Kennedy is a native of the Midwest who occasionally affects an English accent just for the heck of it. Related to two U.S. presidents, Kennedy appalled her family by going into show business.