… are a great because they’re easy to cultivate, and there are many herbal varietals to choose from. Plus, you can get incredible, fresh flavor when you brew your own. Here are a few tea herbs … be digging it out for years to come. However, if it does take over, it may help repel critters from your yard! To make drying herbs a cinch, I use an herb drying rack. You can also dry mint by … do double duty, and lemongrass fits the bill. Not only can you brew a delicious cup of tea from lemongrass, but it also serves as a natural mosquito repellent. Lemongrass doesn’t quite …
Type: Blog
… open mushrooms, paper, and a bowl. You can use mushrooms found growing outside or buy them from the market. When selecting mushrooms for spore prints, look for these things: The cap should … and the individual mushrooms and see what you get. If the paper absorbed a lot of moisture from the mushrooms, it may need to dry before you see the print very well—especially prints made … a watercolor effect instead of a sharp print. If all goes well, billions of spores will fall from the mushroom and produce a pattern that resembles the gills on the underside of the cap, …
Type: Blog
… found throughout the Great Lakes region. It prefers drier prairies with less competition from taller plants. A number of species of bees visit and pollinate this plant. The plant is … dies after flowering and producing seed. I had to know more about this plant and where it came from. While doing additional restoration management, I noticed a dirty blue tag next to the … of thistle so we can better learn the ecology of this plant and how we can save this plant from being extirpated from our area. The seed collection process is not easy: Mesh bags are …
Type: Blog
… had run out of the energy it needed to continue its bloom cycle. Spike is powered by energy from the sun, stored in its beach-ball-sized corm—a tuber-like underground structure. A … Shannon Still, conservation scientist, and Tim Pollak, the floriculturist who had raised Spike from a seed, peeked inside the frilly spathe to check for pollen. “If there had been pollen, it … and Evolutionary Biology, narrated for the crowd. As the spathe started to come away from the towering spadix, the internal color started to be visible. Left: A cross-section of the …
Type: Blog
… “And so it continues to this day by connecting people with beauty and plant collections from around the world in its botanic garden, educating the public about food growing and … with artistry,” Maloney said. “Wealthy individuals would send floral specimens by railroad from as far away as New York. For people in the Chicago area, that was astounding.” One fall … visitors. To observe the anniversary, a special exhibition will take place at the Garden from May 2 through August 16. “There are old hand tools and seed catalogs from the Garden’s …
Type: Blog
… brittle. Firs keep their needles longest, but there are many kinds of evergreens to choose from . Give the stump a fresh cut If you purchase a tree at a location less than 20 minutes from your home, ask for the tree stump to be cut ½ to 1 inch while at the retailer. If you’re … the cut yourself at home. When a tree sits in a lot, its stump creates a callus to prevent it from losing water and sap. A fresh cut allows the tree to absorb water more easily. Make sure the …
Type: Blog
… X-rays showed that seeds had developed in the larger berries—those pollinated with pollen from Stinky, the titan arum that recently bloomed at the Denver Botanic Gardens. There were no … infructescence (fruit stalk) , too: the stalk is curving. As the chubby, seed-filled fruits from Stinky’s pollen continue to ripen and enlarge, the structure is bending over the small, non-viable fruits from Spike’s pollen. Each of the berries produced by Stinky’s pollen will make one or two seeds. …
Type: Blog
… Pagoda Red loaned us many lovely items—including the circa-1900 Buddha and vintage glazed jar from Shanxi province, China—that helped us bring the theme Asia in Bloom to life. You’ll see … headhunters, and the secret ingredient (we cannot vouch for this, sorry) in love potions. From dream to reality Here’s a peek at how we make our design ideas happen: Gabriel Hutchison’s … be cool (pun intended) to shade orchids in the Semitropical Greenhouse with handmade parasols from Myanmar: Handmade parasols filter light from the greenhouse roof above the "checkerboard." …
Type: Blog
… at the Chicago Botanic Garden's signature brick wall stretching along the western border from Lake Cook Road south to Dundee Road, consisting of more than eight acres of planting beds, … of the Chicago Botanic Garden. Cantwell has a bachelor of arts degree in mass communications from Columbia College, Chicago, and a master of science degree in integrated marketing communications from Roosevelt University, Chicago. Before working at the Garden, he worked in healthcare …
Type: Staff bio
… on fossil plants has been undertaken there. This project seeks to document fossil plants from several Early Cretaceous age localities in Mongolia and Inner Mongolia that have exceptional preservation of fossil plants. The project team includes paleobotanists from the Garden, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology (China), and Niigata University (Japan). A grant from the National Science Foundation is funding this research. Our research has revealed an …
Type: Research
