… are a delight for any rose lover. But QUEEN OF SWEDEN™ has two additional characteristics to endear it to gardeners. The flowers are carried upright and the stems have few thorns, making … makes it a good choice for hedges and larger landscaping groups. Rose breeder David Austin is famous for bringing together the shapes and scents of old-fashioned roses with the repeat … good air circulation. Also, all roses, particularly repeat bloomers, are heavy feeders, so for best performance fertilize in spring and again in mid-summer. …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… Pink twin-leaf squill is one of the tiniest plants grown outdoors at the Chicago Botanic Garden. You will see clusters … species. The unopened buds at the top of the spike are deep pink, and as they open they fade to a soft rosy-pink, with carnation pink anthers. They are best planted in large groups because a single bulb could easily be over-looked. They are fully …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… A. Determining when tomatoes are ripe can be tricky, especially when we are anxiously waiting to sample the first tomatoes of the season. As a practical matter, the best guides to tomato ripeness, particularly for the heirloom varieties and those hybrids bred … gardener, are color and touch. First, know the ripe color of the specific tomato variety. This is especially important with non-red tomatoes and some heirloom varieties. The former may not …
Type: Plant Info
… premier kindie bands. Mary and her Impastas have an interactive music show guaranteed to bring dancing, singalongs, instruments, and even a little magic for the kids to enjoy. Mary … connect and engage children with their music and mayhem. Mary was recently voted Chicago’s Best Clown by ChicagoKids.com. In the show, kids get to help Mary Macaroni with magic tricks, shakers, and dancing along to …
Type: Event for Calendar
… winter. It’s not because they are sick or diseased; it’s simply what they do. Larches belong to a special group of plants called deciduous conifers. Like maples and oaks, they produce fall … with their horizontal main branches and gracefully drooping branchlets. Their overall texture is very soft due to the small, slender needles that emerge bright green in spring, turn to a … somewhat, turn yellowish brown and are slightly fuzzy. Because of their size, larches are best used on large properties, parks, or golf courses. They can be used singly as specimens or …
Type: Plant Info
… New! Looking to grow your best garden yet? Join William Moss for an exciting and informative workshop covering … gardening in the Chicago area. Topics will cover tasks, techniques, and tips from winter to fall as well as basic botany, soil preparation, crop selection, rotation and planning, pest …
Type: Item Detail
… needs soils amended with peat moss and/or treatment of the soil with powdered sulfur to survive long term in our heavy alkaline clay soils. Best grown in light shade and despite the need to keep the root constantly moist, the plant does not tolerate planting in low-lying sites where …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… produces abundant white blooms along its upright branches. The genus Spiraea consists of small to medium sized flowering shrubs with a fine-textured twiggy mounding habit. The small simple leaves are generally lance-shaped and held close to the branch. Spring to early summer abundant blooms tend to be in white or pink tones, … are quite small, they occur in clusters of inflorescence that can be very showy. Spireas are best used in groupings in a shrub or mixed border, where they are valued as tough, reliable and …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… Q. When is the best time to harvest sweet corn and how do I do it? A. Sweet corn ears should be picked … and corn kernels that are full at the tips. As harvest time nears, check the corn frequently to ensure you do not miss the milk stage. When the ears are ready, snap them off by hand with a …
Type: Plant Info
… guidebooks for what seems like forever. “Is it this one?” we ask each other, pointing to pictures in the book where the leaves kinda sorta look like our little plant. Finally, we flip … definitely mistake it for a grass; there are no flowers, no spiky balls, no spears. The only way to know it isn’t a grass is to observe the sparse, puny prickles just starting out. The … all else fails, we post to Twitter or Facebook botany groups and someone always knows. The best part of the job—doing research in the field! I’m asking you to combat species blindness by …
Type: Blog
