… and festive way to show friends and relatives that you care about them. It’s a great project for kids who need something to do. (It’s also a way to use up some of those 20-year-old spices … the crease to apply them to your picture. It helps if you make the glue design for one spice at a time, and let each spice dry before putting a new one on. When each spice has dried, shake the card to remove excess, and apply glue for the next spice. This reduces blending. Cream of tartar dries white to make this snowman. …
Type: Blog
… For one December session of our Plant Explorers after school program at Chicago International Charter School—Irving Park, the students made living ornaments for the holidays. This tiny terrarium project can have a calming influence on a potentially … more relaxed. It requires you to find some live moss, but it makes an extra special decoration for kids—and adults—who love plants. The finished moss terrarium ornament A fillable plastic …
Type: Blog
… meadia : A Must-see of the Prairie Question: Which one of these is NOT a common name for this handsome spring ephemeral? Shooting star Prairie pointer Prairie primrose Roosterheads Pride of Ohio Answer: Shooting star is the most common name for this species, at least in the Midwest. The plant’s myriad arching flower stalks sporting … a common name, but one that I created. Not very colorful, but this could very easily be a name for this species, since it commonly occurs in prairies and is a member of the primrose family. …
Type: Blog
… the annual Woman’s Board Fall Bulb Sale is online only. You’ll be able to shop at your leisure for hundreds of varieties of bulbs imported directly from growers in Holland. The members’ … 9 to 10 at the Chicago Botanic Garden, where you can take in the fall color . Can’t wait for spring? The sale also offers several fall-blooming bulbs that you can plant immediately for flowering this fall (see the Colchicum selections). Here are some tips and suggestions to …
Type: Blog
… of fall allium and autumn crocus blooms. This year, however, a special mention must be made for the glorious gladiolus! Especially the delicate, 4-inch, salmon pink flowers of the salmon … cold temperatures! Two characteristics of its native habitat nominated the gladiolus for trial at the Garden: first, it is a winter-growing bulb in South Africa, which translates to … in North America. Second, this plant thrives in moist soils in grassy areas—it was perfect for the site we chose in the Bulb Garden. Based on its initial success in our plant trial …
Type: Blog
… My top pick for cool new plant species? The media has called it grotesque and compared to an eyeless worm. … when researchers stumble on a species unknown to science. Here are five of my favorite recent news stories on orchids: Gastrodia agnicellus , by Rick Burian, courtesy of the Royal Botanic … across a crested fringed orchid (Platanthera cristata) , which no one had seen in the state for nearly 20 years. It’s always a feel-good story to learn that a plant has been rediscovered …
Type: Blog
… Botanic Garden. A room in the basement of the Regenstein Center is the hive of repair activity for the Model Railroad Garden. There are also ghost trains for Night of 1,000 Jack-o’-Lanterns . That is why there is a staff of three year-round engineers … They also invent their own fixes. They have to. Cubs fans in fresh whites never lose hope for their team winning one day. “The Amtrak train hasn’t been made since 2004; we couldn’t get …
Type: Blog
… of a project to adapt zoo population management approaches to plants held in botanic gardens. For the majority of plants, seed banking is the most common method of long-term plant conservation. However, for “exceptional species,” the roughly 20 percent of seed plants not suited to seed banking, a living plant collection is often used for conservation. The viability and value of living collections can be limited without tracking …
Type: Research
… resilient plant populations is not as easy as throwing seeds on the ground and waiting for them grow,” notes Andrea Kramer, Ph.D., the Chicago Botanic Garden’s director of restoration … scientists teamed up with researchers from the University of Washington and the Institute for Applied Ecology to identify the most effective approaches for producing and using genetically … in the peer-reviewed journal Restoration Ecology. Full article: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/rec.13131 Photo by Tom Kaye: A population of golden paintbrush ( Castilleja …
Type: Research
… the first conservation assessment of fungi (mushrooms) in Southeast Asia. Fungi are important for forest health and many are valuable as medicine and food for people. Losing unique species of fungi diminishes the health of natural ecosystems, … status of the vast majority of fungal species has never been assessed. A crucial component for targeting conservation action and priority of the workshop was to determine which species are …
Type: Research
