… to improve the quality of your landscape — and, by extension, your life! Planting one tree in the right place is an easy and affordable way to create beauty and improve the quality of life. Trees enhance the landscape in all seasons, including winter, because they provide the “bones” of a landscape design. They … way to enjoy fresh flowers is to grow a cutting garden from seed. For around $20 you can buy a collection of seeds for a summer's worth of flowering annuals that make excellent …
Type: Plant Info
… vividly the first time I visited the Chicago Botanic Garden. I was silent (unusual for me) and in awe. Everywhere I looked, I saw plant labels, and looking at them provided me some kind of … Botanic gardens are living museums, and when you go to a museum, you want to know what is in front of you. A display plant’s name on the label is the first interaction between you, the … without being harmed. This label is mounted on a post at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London, England. They speak English here, but the common name of the plant could have varied. …
Type: Blog
… Europe, Australasia, Asia, southwest China, Tibet, Myanmar, northern India, and New Guinea. In their natural habitats, the plants vary in size from creeping at ground level to 80 feet tall. … mix consists of equal parts of good top soil, peat moss, sand, and shredded bark. A soil test can help determine the pH of your soil before you plant. If the soil acidity is not in the … add elemental sulfur and/or an iron chelate to lower the pH. Find these products and soil test kits at garden centers or online. When the plants are finished flowering, gently pull off …
Type: Plant Info
… You may have noticed more garlic mustard in your garden, yard, or alley this year. The ecologists who tend to the Chicago Botanic Garden’s natural areas have, too. We had not seen much garlic mustard in our natural areas in recent years, and its reemergence is a reminder for all of us that controlling and managing …
Type: Blog
… the last. This has made the “aquatic” areas fascinating to maintain and a great environment to test shoreline management strategies with use of native plantings and integrative pest management techniques. I’m also interested in the use and promotion of native species in urban landscapes. Growing up in Chicago I relished the time being in parks and found it …
Type: Staff bio
… There are some remarkable prairie plants in the Midwest. Here at the Chicago Botanic Garden, the Dixon Prairie boasts more than 250 species of native plants. You don’t have to go far to find plants that have something … about their life story. Something that might help you remember them when you happen upon them in a local natural area. Something other than a pretty face. Dodecatheon meadia : A Must-see of …
Type: Blog
… with similar climatic conditions. The herbaceous plants under evaluation are grown outdoors in side-by-side trials for a minimum of four years; vines and shrubs are evaluated for a minimum … their ornamental traits; cultural adaptability to the soil and environmental conditions of the test site; disease and pest problems; and winter injury. Twenty comparative trials are currently underway, including trials in the Shida Evaluation Garden featuring abelias ( Abelia ), bugleweeds ( Ajuga ), goatsbeards ( …
Type: Staff bio
… There are things I look forward to seeing every season. In spring, I watch for “mighty plants” that emerge from the ground with enough force to heave the … around me inspires lots of questions. I want to understand how this is possible and I want to test their strength. So I spent a few weeks playing around with this phenomenon in the Learning … and conclusions after they think they have made a discovery. They use the experiment to test their discovery and provide convincing evidence to support it. In some cases, the experiment …
Type: Blog
… is synonymous with the word “bee,” but only a fraction of plants are pollinated by bees. In fact, many different insects and mammals are pollinators—bats, birds, beetles, moths, and … then perhaps, in some populations, the plants benefit from not advertising their scent. To test this idea, we needed to conduct behavioral experiments to understand how Hyles perceive … insects that eat them might determine how a flower smells! We hope to continue this study to test our hypothesis further and learn more about how scent influences hawkmoth behavior, and how …
Type: Blog
… perennial border, it’s wise to refrain from adding any amendment to soil before having a soil test. Most Midwest soils contain high levels of potassium and phosphorus and don’t require … fertilizer with a nitrogen to phosphorus to potassium ratio of 3:1:2. This can be done in early May or early fall. Avoid heavy nitrogen use if water runs off your lawn into a body of … leaf mold or homemade compost fertilizes plants organically and improves soil texture. Till in 2 to 4 inches when planting a bed, or broadcast across beds in early spring and late fall when …
Type: Plant Info
