The floral smells, deep colors and breeze of the Chicago Botanic Garden should calm students escaping the stresses of midterms and bar scenes. One of the most visited attractions in Illinois – with more than one million visitors annually – the nearly 400 acre complex boasts millions of plants, and more than 20 individual gardens and reserves, including Japanese Zen gardens and Evening Island.

Some 25 miles north from the Chicago Loop, the garden provides a flowery oasis from the noise and chaos of city life. Located in Glencoe, students should plan ahead before visiting, as the garden is really only accessible by Metra rail or car. It takes more than six hours to adequately tour the whole garden.

Maintaing such a vast compound is not easy. Some 200 staff and gardeners, and about 1,200 volunteers tame the plants and maintain the facilities.

“We are always looking for volunteers,” said Julie McCaffrey, the media relations manager at the garden. “We have volunteers from all age groups.”

And in an effort to reach younger people, the garden is promoting a comprehensive smart phone app called “GardenGuide,” which provides audio narration about certain gardens, GPS location software to pinpoint individual locations, and information about more than 2.5 million plants. The garden insist the app “is the first of its kind to be developed in the United States with the ability to tap into a botanic garden’s plant collections database.”

“The app can be a companion for visitors,” said McCaffrey. “I don’t think phone screens will distract people from the plants.” With all the smaller gardens, statues and trails, it is easy to get lost. The app should help first-time visitors.

Similarly, the garden is relaunching their Pinterest profile, and an Instagram account is coming soon.

“We want people to explore the garden and feel the plants,” said McCaffrey. “This is an actual museum. A living museum.”

And the visitors do explore. Numerous seniors brought expensive Nikons for photographing, young couples with picnic baskets were sprawled across the terrain and school children leapt from rock to rock.

Owned by the Cook County Forest Preserve and operated by the Chicago Horticultural Society since 1972, the garden is open every day of the year. It is one of the 17 public gardens accredited by the American Association of Museums

Grapevines and Wines, the garden’s first tasting event will be May 30. Tickets are $25.