… a walk around your neighborhood—or at the Chicago Botanic Garden and other green space—to look for animal tracks, either with your children or for your own benefit. Fresh air, exercise, and exposure to nature deliver many benefits for your health and well-being. As an additional benefit for little ones, searching for animal …
Type: Blog
… It happens every year—like Groundhog Day—and I have the same déjà vu annually! Each winter for the past more than 20 years, I have supervised and worked on the pruning of the apple orchard … before the buds begin to plump and open, as this is the optimal window to prune apple trees for plant health. Over the years, I have been in every tree many, many times. Some are easier to … enjoy this late-winter pruning project, as it has become an annual rite of passage into spring for me. Our current style of pruning strikes a balance between ornamental pruning and …
Type: Blog
… remaining until germination. When the seed sprouts, the new soft tissue offers a welcome home for the fungus to grow. Bacterial pathogens sometimes will infect the embryo of the seed itself, … These plants are rarely—if ever—infected from within the seed coat. Use heat treatment for seeds of the tomato family, (tomato, eggplant, pepper), carrot family (carrot, celery, parsley, cilantro), cabbage family ( see here for a long list of those vegetables ), spinach, and lettuce. A few common household supplies …
Type: Blog
… I just returned from two weeks in Mongolia searching for fossil flowers. Why go halfway around the world to look for fossils of flowering plants when there are plenty of fossil flowers closer to home? … lives in one large, sprawling city, the capital, Ulaanbaatar (also spelled Ulan Bator, or “UB” for short). Most of the country is rural with very few people; it ranges from mountains and …
Type: Blog
… How best to highlight the color of 10,000 blooming orchids? For Brilliance: The Orchid Show , which runs February 8 to March 22 at the Chicago Botanic … at squares of color in the slant of the afternoon sun. The colors had to pop in daylight and for Orchids After Hours , an evening look at the Show with cocktails and light bites for purchase. We tried out color combinations one by one. The comments were brutal. No, too …
Type: Blog
… For the past week, the big forklifts and trucks with their whimsical cargo have been rolling in to set up for the U.S. debut of Lightscape on November 22. Popular time slots are selling fast for the new holiday event at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Lightscape is a festive, immersive trail …
Type: Blog
… It’s a big week for cooking, for getting out the china, crystal, and silver, and for setting a holiday-worthy table…but have you thought about a centerpiece yet? A cornucopia, or …
Type: Blog
… Chester Jankowski, Jr., is the senior horticulturist for the Grunsfeld Children’s Growing Garden and the Kleinman Family Cove at the Chicago Botanic Garden. He is responsible for designing and maintaining the gardens, and working with the education staff to make all the … At the Cove, Jankowski uses the garden to create an outdoor classroom filled with nature for children to observe and study. He also rotates on weekend duty to water gardens during the …
Type: Staff bio
… Many students I know struggle to find a good idea for science fair projects and sometimes wait until the last minute to do their experiments. We in … Garden are committed to helping make science fair a painless and even fun learning experience for students, parents, and teachers by offering some simple ideas for studying plants. A no-brainer botany project is testing germination of radish seeds in …
Type: Blog
… herb you’d grow in your yard can be used to flavor drinks. Herbs + fresh fruit = a yummy base for all sorts of hot and cold beverages. Grab what’s in season in the yard and experiment. A few … Oregano + berries Cilantro + watermelon Tarragon + peach Thirsty for more? Let’s move on to muddling... Kasey Bersett Eaves demonstrates proper muddling … and rotate the jar a quarter turn. Repeat five more times. Six presses are about right for a single drink—more if you’re making a pitcher’s worth. Here’s the third rule of muddling: …
Type: Blog
