… plant names and plant parts, sprouted a few seeds, and dissected a plant. That was about it for my formal plant-science education. Hands-on plant science at the Garden: a young visitor gets a whiff of Spike’s removed spathe, looking for that telltale stench. Flash forward a couple of decades and, despite now being an avid … trees have pollen as dry and fine as dust (indeed, the word “pollen” derives from the Latin for fine flour or dust). Orchids have developed waxy balls of pollen (pollinia) that stick to …
Type: Blog
… conifers are at their peak during the coldest weather. While other plants have gone dormant for the winter, various conifers are lighting up the landscape in shades of blue, yellow, bronze, … providing a calming backdrop. Arborvitae ( Thuja sp.) are among the best evergreens for bright winter color. Cultivars such as Thuja occidentalis ‘ Golden Globe’ provide a burst … Ribbons’ brightens up dreary winter days. Pinus sosnowskyi Among my favorite evergreens for winter interest are the firs ( Abies sp.). Korean fir ( Abies koreana ) has needles that curl …
Type: Blog
… Fabiany Herrera , Ph.D., of the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science and Action, together with lead author Monica Carvalho and Carlos … Jaramillo —researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute—among others, discovered for the first time how the tropical rainforest in South America responded to the asteroid impact … important flowering plants. This study also shows that it took almost six million years for the tropical rainforest to recover after the asteroid impact. Herrera highlights that if it …
Type: Research
… For many people, lilacs are a sentimental flower. My mother planted many lilacs on our farm in … in the water. Leave the bucket in a cool, dark place and allow the flowers to take up water for at least an hour. Remove leaves Remove all of the leaves from each stem. Recut stem ends … back into the bucket of water. Allow the stems to take up more water in a cool, dark place for another one to two hours. The lilacs will then be ready for arranging, and will last three to …
Type: Blog
… Putting roses to sleep for winter In early November, many of the roses that bloom twice per year (called remontant, or … nighttime temperatures—and Garden staff jumped into action to put the rose beds “to sleep” for the winter. Now the garden looks entirely different. The process that our staff uses to prep roses for winter is the same process you can use in your rose garden, too. Step 1: Prune canes. While …
Type: Blog
… little concerned about whether they would have time to emerge before we have to shut our doors for the season. When I came into the pupae chamber a few days after they arrived, there was a … to name it “Bobby.” Bobby and Aaliyah (the atlas moth) will definitely be hanging around for a couple of weeks, so come over and say hello. Photo by Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK [ … home is in the Regenstein Learning Campus . I can’t think of a more appropriate place for visitors to come to interact and learn about nature in some of its most beautiful forms. …
Type: Blog
… of ornamental plants, predominantly herbaceous perennials, to determine the best garden plants for the Upper Midwest and areas 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 of six years. Plants are monitored regularly to assess their ornamental traits; …
Type: Staff bio
… When you lift a rock in your garden and glimpse earthworms and tiny insects hustling for cover, you’ve just encountered the celebrities of soil. We all know them on sight. The leggy, … community. These tiny heroes are microscopic organisms that attach themselves to plant roots, for example, to carry out critical functions that support all life on earth. They are essential … line of work. “ There’s a real need for soil ecologists in the country ,” she said. The good news is that the future story of fungi is one we can all help to script. Gardeners, she advised, …
Type: Blog
… girls would will not sit still and listen to another lesson. I decided to make a board game for them. The main message of this game was a really important one: in Chicago, all of our water for drinking, cleaning, and recreation comes from Lake Michigan. If we waste water, then we waste … to play. The girls responded very well to the activity. I am sharing it on the Garden’s blog for others to use, because at the Chicago Botanic Garden, we would also like people to understand …
Type: Blog
… the Prairie Series Life in the prairie in the middle of winter is fairly uneventful; at least for humans who focus primarily on life above ground. Perhaps now is a good time to reflect on the … of this nation. The root mass in a prairie is more than double the shoot mass above ground. For thousands of years, the death and regeneration of roots and organisms that interact with them … of endomycorrhizal fungi that support their symbiotic relationship with prairie plants. For the prairie plants, the fungi develops a network of very fine hyphae that spread through soil …
Type: Blog
