Jan Smith Park is a four-acre outdoor museum of native Illinois prairie plants. Each fall, on the annual harvest day, local gardeners collect the seeds and take them home to use in their gardens. The park is also a certified Monarch Butterfly Waystation.
Learn about natural wildflowers and prairie grasses and how they grow by becoming a volunteer. Hands-on experience is one of the best ways to discover the process of planting and caring for prairie gardens. Volunteers are needed for weeding and caring of the gardens during the growing season.
Tours are available for groups. Just give Jan a call. You will often see her at the park caring for the grounds.
Contact Jan Smith – 630-690-0633
You can find the following plant species located at Jan Smith Park:
Aromatic Aster
Big Bluestem
Black Eyed Susans
Butterfly Milkweed
Compass Plant
Coreopsis
Culver’s Root
False Aster
Golden Alexanders
Heath Aster
Illinois Bundle Flower
Indian Grass
Joe Pye
Monarda
Mountain Mint
New England Aster
Nodding Wild Onion
Northern Wild Rye
Pale Purple Coneflower
Prairie Blazingstar
Prairie Dock
Prairie Dropseed
Rosa Carolina
Spiderwort
Stiff Goldenrod
Sunflowers
Jan Smith Park has become a Monarch Butterfly Waystation. By planting milkweed and other pollinating plants, the park contributes to the conservation of the monarch by preserving monarch migration. Receipt of this certification includes the habitat’s being included in the Monarch Waystation Registry, an online listing of Monarch Waystations worldwide.
