Chicago Botanic Garden

Your Garden — Plant Information Service

Plant Information Services at the Garden

Master Gardeners and Horticulture Specialists provide the following services to Garden visitors, Internet clients, and callers on the Plant Information Hotline at (847) 835-0972:

  • Recommendations on care of trees, shrubs, annuals, perennials, vegetables, fruits, and houseplants
  • Diagnosis and treatment options for control of insects, diseases, and cultural disorders
  • General gardening information on soils, composting, pruning, mulching, and more
  • Plant and insect identification
  • Recommendations on plant selections for northern Illinois
  • Assistance with locating purchasing sources for particular plants

Contact us online with your:

General Questions

Plant/Pest Diagnosis Request

Plant Identification
Request

Please be sure to read our guidelines for specimen collection and submission if you will be bringing in a sample for diagnosis. If you will be sending images through the online forms above, please send files in one of the requested formats.

Remember! Our diagnosis is only as good as your sample. Please follow our guidelines for collecting and submitting samples in order for us to provide you with accurate answers to your questions.

Question of the Month

poinsettiaQ. Will the unusual warm temperatures and lack of snow this winter affect my plants in any way?

A. The mild days we experienced in December, along with lack of snow and unusually sunny skies may result in browning leaves on broadleaf and needle evergreens. This browning – commonly called winterburn – happens when evergreens transpire (give off moisture) and cannot replace the water lost from their leaves. Typically, winterburn occurs during very cold winters when the ground freezes and the plant is unable to take up water. However, this winter the mild temperatures and sunshine may have caused winterburn because plants continued transpiring throughout December and January. In most cases, the winterburn is limited and the plants will recover in the spring. However, severely damaged plants may have to be removed and replaced in the spring.

Brown or yellow evergreen leaves are dead and will not green up, even under improved conditions. Damaged branches can be pruned out, although it may be best to wait until spring to see if new spring growth fills in the damaged areas.

Extended periods of warm temperatures may stimulate plants into growth earlier than usual. Short bouts of extreme cold in March may damage early flower buds of flowering trees and shrubs. Damaged buds will often simply die and fall off without blooming. Others may produce damaged flowers. If flowering shrubs produced blooms during the warm periods in early winter they will bloom less profusely in the spring or not at all.

Please contact Plant Information Service at (847) 835-0972
for information about plants.