… American red elderberry is an deciduous shrub that grows to a maximum height of 25 feet. It requires full sun or partial …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… This is a clump-forming perennial that will reach a height of 1½’ and a width of 1’. It blooms in mid- …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… This is an upright, vase shaped tree with green leaves throughout the growing season followed by …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… scratches, soft or rotten spots, and cracks, and should feel heavy relative to its size. Shape is unimportant. There should be 3 to 4 inches of dry stem attached to the pumpkin. If you are … with dark markers or paint instead of carving your pumpkin will prolong its life. Pumpkin is an excellent source of vitamin A and fiber, and can be prepared in a number of ways besides … roasting. The larger decorative pumpkins are not good choices for cooking, as their flesh is often bland and very stringy. Smaller pie pumpkins with sweeter, firmer flesh are preferred. …
Type: Plant Info
… garden this winter – any suggestions? A. When attempting to attract birds to your garden, it is important to know what species are in your area as well as their food preferences and feeding … to various species. Be sure to keep suet cakes cold or they may become rancid. Water is essential to birds in the winter. Placing water basins in sunny locations will often keep the … freezing. Commercial water heaters designed for birdbaths can be used to keep water open. It is important to thoroughly clean and dry bird feeders, houses, and water basins on a regular …
Type: Plant Info
… Q. Do you have any suggestions for plants that can be used in a fall container? A. September is a perfect time to plant a beautiful fall container when many annual plants are beginning to … snapdragon thrive in cooler temperatures and contribute a large variety of color. Blue lobelia is perfect for unusual fall color and loves cooler temperatures. Stock, Sweet Alyssum, … for a long time and add interesting foliage texture. Swiss chard ‘Bright Lights’ is an edible grown for its colorful leaves and stems. Other cool-season edibles such …
Type: Plant Info
… This is the quiet time of year, when we put our gardens to bed. All the hustle of summer planting, weeding, and watering is just a memory now. But our gardens aren’t really sleeping. Look closely and you’ll discover … they’re busy singing, looking for a mate, and building nests—in winter, a bird’s main activity is to find and eat enough food to keep warm. They’re searching for something to eat and for …
Type: Plant Info
… Lenhardt Library, the Nursery Catalog Database—and its companion, a physical file of catalogs—is a gardener's dream: an already-edited and constantly updated list of hundreds (currently 784) … Have an unusual interest? So do the mushroom folks at Garden City Fungi ( gardencityfungi.com ), the banana experts at Going Bananas ( going-bananas.com ), and the Kitazawa Seed Company ( kitazawaseed.com ), which has been selling Asian vegetable …
Type: Plant Info
… Why Care about Fungi? The Chicago area is host to more than a thousand species of mushrooms and mushroom like fungi—beneficial, … pathogens . In large forests that extend miles, older trees die to make way for new trees—it is a natural part of the life cycle. Forest fungi help this regeneration to take place. Finally, … the forest. If you do collect in the wild, be aware of and follow rules for collecting at that site, e.g., collecting fungi is not allowed on any forest preserve property in the greater …
Type: Plant Info
… love to watch spring unfold in gardens everywhere—but at the Chicago Botanic Garden, my heart is in the water. As the Woman’s Board Curator of Aquatics, I like to point out the signs of … a short, curious-looking purple flower. The Budburst plant app would tell you that the plant is a prairie wildflower known as prairie smoke (Geum triflorum) —the flower really does look like … farther downslope, you might see another short flower, this one vibrant yellow. This plant is marsh marigold (Caltha palustris) and should not be confused with the insidious invader lesser …
Type: Blog
