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  • Dahlias
    … root zone. Plants native to Mexico cannot survive a Chicago winter. The tubers must be stored over winter in a dark, dry room where temperatures range from 40 to 50 degrees. In late fall, …
    Type: Plant Info
  • Begonias, Angel-wing
    … of the stem to grow since they too will develop a bushier form. If any one cane starts to take over or grows rapidly with only a few leaves, prune it out. When the plant is one year old, prune …
    Type: Plant Info
  • Butterfly Weed
    … fritillaries, viceroys, skippers, monarchs, and a host of other winged wonders flutter over the flowers in search of nectar all summer long. A native perennial, butterfly weed is found …
    Type: Plant Info
  • Pumpkins
    … in 100 days and can be used for crafts or pies. Composting Once Halloween and Thanksgiving are over, the remains of the pumpkin can be added to your compost bin to enrich your soil and divert …
    Type: Plant Info
  • Restoring Chicago-area Habitats
    … and naturally rich range of ecosystems—wetlands, prairie, woodlands—that have been changed over time by human activities like landscaping. In urban environments like the Chicago area, …
    Type: Plant Info
  • Haunted Island
    … you, matching their footsteps to yours, but always a fraction of a second behind. You look over your shoulder, only to find no one there. A delayed echo of footsteps, a spectral companion …
    Type: Blog
  • Weaving the Landscape Back to Life
    … of seeds and amplifying what conservationists initially collected in the wild 300 times over. Harvests should only continue to grow with time, eventually reaching thousands of pounds …
    Type: Blog
  • The Race to Save Wild Orchids
    … start from scratch. “With orchids, there’s no one-size-fits-all,” Hutchins said. “People all over the world are working with their own native species. But with almost 30,000 orchid species, …
    Type: Blog
  • Corpse Flowers Go on an Excellent Adventure
    … glory. At one point, we had two, Java and Sumatra, in their bloom cycle at the same time. Over time, our family of titans has grown. Many of the Garden’s corpse flowers share the same …
    Type: Blog
  • Discovery of the Red Fernleaf Peony
    … Mountain Range. Dirt roads had not been graded in quite a while, and the sun-baked ruts left over from the winter rains gave rise to the trip joke: shaken, not stirred. This was definitely …
    Type: Blog