Boyce Tankersley tells us about the earliest blooming plants at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Watch for interesting facts about witch hazel and snowdrops and see other early bloomers like winter aconite and lenten rose. Come see them this weekend!

View the video on YouTube here.

The horticulturists at the Chicago Botanic Garden are leading some of the potting parties at the Chicago Flower & Garden Show at Navy Pier this week. Cost is $20 and includes a pot and five plants that will make for a wonderful spring display. For more information, visit www.chicagoflower.com.

View the video on YouTube here.

Heather Sherwood, Senior Horticulturist at the Chicago Botanic Garden, shows us how easy it is to cut flowering branches and bring them indoors for early blooms this spring!

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The Orchid Album, written by Robert Warner and illustrated by John Nugent Fitch, set the standard for orchid description and illustration in the nineteenth century. Containing more than 500 stunning chromolithographic plates in 11 volumes, this work captured orchid varieties in their wild states before hybridization. The exhibition is on display in the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Lenhardt Library through May 9, 2010.

View the video on YouTube here.

Donna LaPietra, one of the co-producers of the 2010 Antiques & Garden Fair, tells us about plans for the Fair on April 16-18, 2010. She talked to Alessandra Branca, honorary co-chair of the Fair and Preview, about what she’s bringing to the show, her new book and her lecture on Friday, April 16.

View the video on YouTube here.

In the Harry Potter books and movies, Harry attends a class on herbology taught by Professor Sprout. Ed Valauskas uses the Garden’s rare book collection to teach a similar class on how people’s notions of plants changed during the Renaissance. Learn about the legend of the vegetable lamb of tartar and so much more! Ed teaches this class again at 10 a.m. on July 10, 2010. Visit www.chicagobotanic.org/school to register.

The Lenhardt Library’s rare book collection is available by appointment. Visit www.chicagobotanic.org/library for more information.

View the video on YouTube here.

Eileen Prendergast, manager of youth & family programs at the Chicago Botanic Garden, tells us about Weekend Family Classes including Hot Chocolate. For more information on Weekend Family Classes, visit http://www.chicagobotanic.org/forfamilies/.

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The annual Three Friends of Winter exhibition highlights the bonsai in winter, when its structure is at its most elegant. This Bonsai exhibition is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. January 29-31, 2010. Want to try your own hand at learning the art of Bonsai? The Joseph Regenstein Jr. School holds classes throughout the year. Register online at www.chicagobotanic.org/school. For more information on the Three Friends of Winter event, visit www.chicagobotanic.org/plantshows/three_friends.

View the video on YouTube here.

The Losing Paradise exhibition of botanical illustrations of endangered plants will be on display at the Chicago Botanic Garden through April 4, 2010. Read more about this amazing exhibition at www.chicagobotanic.org/exhibitions/losing-paradise.

View the video on YouTube here.