… Love is in the air...we ❤️ the date nights, meet-cutes, and anniversaries at the Garden—and watching the 50 or so couples who got engaged last year at our holiday event Lightscape. So we got to thinking about romantic spots on our 385 acres and heart-fluttering engagement moments. Esplanade: We’re not crying. You’re crying. Recently, a …
Type: Blog
… Botanic Garden have a new place to show off in a “theater” designed just for them in the Helen and Richard Thomas English Walled Garden . Plant theater is a traditional English presentation of exceptional plants, such as snowdrops and primroses, that are potted and placed on tiers of shelves. “It’s an old-school way of displaying specific plants and it will …
Type: Blog
… I scratch my head and wipe the sweat from my brow. One of my summer interns found a little plant, under a bunch of big plants, and we thought for a second it might be the same as the big plants, but it is definitely different. It’s our first field day. We don’t know what this plant is called, and it’s a hot and humid summer day in Chicago, and we have been searching through our …
Type: Blog
… supplementing visual stimuli with olfactory. Fragrances, like music, often elicit memories, and so this short list of favorite fragrant plants includes a number that I experienced when I … peak throughout the season. Finally, I believe every garden should have a least one rose; and that it should be fragrant. Rosa ‘Mister Lincoln’, with deep velvety red petals and … Lonicera flava honeysuckle is a fragrant and hardy variety. Photo via southeasternflora.com. Tuberose, Polianthes tuberosa , is a nonhardy (for us) bulb from northern Mexico with an …
Type: Blog
… late in the season, the garden looked exceptionally lush—canes were tall, bloom was heavy, and November’s cold-but-not-freezing nights kept the last of the season’s flowers going through Thanksgiving. Finally, early December brought below-freezing nighttime temperatures—and Garden staff jumped into action to put the rose beds “to sleep” for the winter. Now the … for roses, end-of-the-year pruning protects the plant from winter wind (canes can whip around and scar each other, and stiff winds can pull long-caned plants out of the ground). Prune out …
Type: Blog
… bring out the goodness in people. Her house in the Hudson Valley was full of exotic tropicals and orchids that she cared for meticulously. And yet she was always ready to give them away when anyone showed an interest in one, which for … plant that she had nurtured for decades, wrap up a chunk of the roots in a wet paper towel, and send me home on the five-hour drive holding a new precious plant in my lap. Her generosity …
Type: Blog
… Spring is here, and the birds are returning from their winter homes. Some birds fly through the Chicago area to their nesting habitats up north, while others return and stay in the area. Spring is the season for laying eggs, because it gives the juvenile birds all summer to mature and become strong before they need to migrate in the fall. Also, as spring turns to summer, the …
Type: Blog
… English Walled Garden West Flower Walk McGinley Pavilion Runnells and Searle Courtyards Dwarf Conifer Garden Waterfall Garden Sensory Garden Circle Garden Lakeside Gardens Heather Sherwood is the senior horticulturist for the Helen and Richard Thomas English Walled Garden. She also is responsible for the West Flower Walk, McGinley Pavilion, Runnells Courtyard, and Searle Courtyard; she coordinates and oversees the maintenance of the Dwarf Conifer Garden, …
Type: Staff bio
… As plant collectors, we spend a lot of time and energy researching the flora of the areas we are going to visit. We search out areas of the world where the climate is similar to that of the midwestern United States, and we make lists. Lots of lists. Massive spreadsheets document travel plans, emergency contacts; … high-value germplasm that we hope to find at each of our planned collection locations; and costs: airfare, gasoline in the country, driver wages, botanist guides, food, and lodging. …
Type: Blog
… or lady slipper orchid, is another popular orchid with collectors: it prefers high humidity and indirect light, faring best in eastern early morning light. But how do you ensure early … sphagnum moss in which they are sold provides too much constant moisture for the plant, and can damage the delicate, epiphytic root system. Anne Nies, a master’s degree candidate in the Garden and Northwestern University’s Plant Biology and Conservation program, is an expert in all things …
Type: Blog
