… won't preclude an abundant garden whenever summer finally arrives. Start some plants indoors, in a controlled environment, in warm, dry potting soil or soilless mix, and you will lengthen the … science experiment, go for it! Catalogs, Garden Centers, Websites This can be dangerous. Don’t buy any plant with a name you don’t recognize. The Garden's Plant Information Service at (847) … of this on-site expertise. Seeds, Bulbs, Tubers – Read the Small Print Read before you buy. If some of those gorgeous flowers require heating mats or fluorescent lights, and you don’t …
Type: Plant Info
… within our 24 individual gardens and four natural areas. Spring’s promise of renewal fits in with the Passover theme, as the story of Exodus tells how Jews were released from slavery and … with symbols, is a special time for families to gather and remember by retelling the story in a traditional format (seder means “order”). But, as with so many other holidays, commercialism … spelt and whole-wheat matzo are now available in many stores as well as online. You can even buy organic matzah made in Chicago, enabling you to shop locally. Make It Yourself At the end of …
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… wonderful graduate students and a team of researchers to study ways to restore natural areas in the Colorado Plateau. If you’ve ever visited national parks like the Grand Canyon or Arches, … across Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona—and the largest concentration of national parks in the country. Our research team heads out across a recently-burned area in search of data. Although beautiful, the Colorado Plateau’s natural areas are facing many …
Type: Blog
… The hand-carved Buddha is in the house. A circa-1850 glazed Chinese jar is filled with green Cymbidium orchids native to Asia. And we’re pampering 10,000 other orchids so they’ll be in full flower for Asia in Bloom: The Orchid Show. Lighting crews, horticulturists, and dozens of other staff members are …
Type: Blog
… Do you see something pushing up from the ground that looks like the claws of some creature in a zombie movie? Does it smell bad too? Happy spring! This charmer is the first native … of a Chicago spring: the skunk cabbage ( Symplocarpus foetidus). A skunk cabbage blooms in early March in the McDonald Woods. It’s a biologically intriguing, ecologically brilliant prelude to the …
Type: Blog
… load up the cart, let’s look at five essential things that would benefit you and your garden. In the long run, these items are like a little insurance policy for your plants. 1. Rain Gauge … on a regular basis to flower beds, borders and vegetable gardens. 3. A Soil Test Kit You can buy the best plants in the world, but if your soil lacks nutrients or organic matter, or is … carbon and nitrogen, helping decomposition. The end result is similar to what you might buy in bags at a garden center. Other essentials? How about a class, a good book, or more …
Type: Plant Info
… Q: How can I overwinter coleus plants so I don’t have to buy new ones each spring? A: The easiest method is to pot up stem cuttings. Most growers and home gardeners use this method in late fall to overwinter coleus plants or in early spring to increase their stock of hard-to-find cultivars. To overwinter coleus, cut 3- …
Type: Plant Info
… $18 a plant—I decided to graft some tomato plants myself and grow them out. My first foray was in winter 2013. The Chicago Botanic Garden’s propagator in the plant production department, Cathy Thomas, had just returned from a conference at Longwood … out of direct sunlight, to heal for up to one week. When planning on grafting, growers must buy double the amount of seed and need to double the number of plantings (to account for the …
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… We used four grocery store hydrangeas to test three methods: Specimen 1 Dipped the stem in alum (a food additive used for pickling or canning) Specimen 2 Added Quick Dip powder to the … the xylem, which is the plant’s tissue that transports water up the stem.” Do this: Put them in water ASAP Whether you cut or buy them, get your hydrangeas in water immediately. If hydrangeas are out of water for too long, …
Type: Blog
… — The Hows and Whys One of winter's many pleasures is seeing a male northern cardinal, decked in bright red plumage, feasting on seeds from your snow-covered feeder. Indeed, one of the main … kinds of food that attract different species. Before you start buying feeders and seeds, keep in mind some basic concepts that will make you and the birds happy: Though birds are intelligent … it's a good idea to keep the feeders filled as much as you can until middle to late spring. In fact, early spring, when last fall's seeds are all gone and the insects haven't yet started to …
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