… tree lots carry a dazzling array of trees ranging from fragrant balsam firs ( Abies balsamea) to shimmering Colorado blue spruces ( Picea pungens ). With so many choices, how does one choose? The three most commonly encountered groups of Christmas trees are firs, pines, and spruces. … Colorado blue spruce ( Picea pungens ‘Procumbens’) Spruce ( Picea sp.) Spruces come in colors ranging from dark green to icy blue, but they all share one thing in common; incredibly …
Type: Blog
… October 16 - 18, 2014 9 am to 4:30 p.m. Japanese garden experts and devotees will convene at the North American Japanese … Landscape Designers (APLD) can earn Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for selected sessions. Visit najga.org for conference information and to register. …
Type: Event for Calendar
… Unlike many other striking blue-flowered sages, this one is hardy in the Chicago area. “It needs full sun and limited additional irrigation during the growing season,” says Boyce Tankersley, director of living plant documentation. “The flowers …
Type: Plant Info
… When I was growing up, there were certain animals I was saddened to think I would never see in my lifetime. There were those species that had become extinct, of … pigeons, Carolina parakeets, ivory-billed woodpeckers, and Labrador ducks. I had read the life histories of these species and marveled at descriptions of their colors, sounds, and … and egg laying as early as February. Eagle nests are usually built in living trees and can get quite large, as the long-lived adults add additional material to the same nest each year. One …
Type: Blog
… Well branched smaller stature plants are covered with bright orange single zinnia flowers from the height of summer into early fall. The stature and branching habits support the use of this cultivar in containers and flower beds. Nectar rich flowers are visited during the summer by a number of …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… of texture to garden beds and baskets. Grown for its vibrant flashes of foliage, which span the color spectrum from yellow and chartreuse to burgundy and purple, coleus is enjoying a … hybridizing coleus Over 200 different cultivars are now available. Solid colors have given way to unlikely combinations of poison green with tomato red or mustard yellow with passion pink! … Only some are smooth; some are puckered or quilted, inviting a touch. Most coleus performs best in shaded or semi-shaded gardens; the sun-loving varieties should be marked as such. Even …
Type: Plant Info
… It’s easy to find fun outdoors—with sticks, chirpy crickets, magic circles, and more. “Hands in earth, sand, mud: building, digging, sewing, baking—these are what humans DO.” For fun, … and education-based ideas, we turned to a fun, interesting, and education-based crowd: the 190 teachers, home educators, day-care providers, park district staff, museum employees, …
Type: Blog
… This tropical perennial thrives in low light, high humidity, warm temperatures, and growing conditions where it produces magenta "flamingo flowers" throughout the year. It is pollinated by a number of tropical bees that visit the pollen sacs in a spiral up the inflorescence. The seeds are contained in a berry with juicy, sticky sap that birds try to remove by wiping their bills on surrounding woody surfaces and in the process distributing the …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… Meadow-making has become a captivating trend, often referred to as The New Naturalism, The New American Garden, The New Perennial Movement, Meadowscaping, and … drifts of sun-loving perennials that change with the seasons. This style slowly bubbled up in the 1980s in Holland and Germany, and it has become a popular alternative to resource-gobbling …
Type: Plant Info
… Single spikes produce bicolored flowers featuring orange buds that open to creamy yellow flowers. This is a clumping variety of aloe that does not get very tall and is ideal for use in containers in cold climate zones. …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
