… 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
… be able to hang it from a branch. Finally, fill the fruit with birdseed and hang it outside for your feathered friends to enjoy. If you like, you can add a little suet, but you may find it … any visitors the first few days after you’ve placed your feeder. It can take up to two weeks for birds to discover their new food source, but once they do, they tell all their friends in the neighborhood. The final product is ready for visitors. After you hang your bird feeder, take some of the seed and plant it to see what …
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
… 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
… 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
… 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
… is simply mixed, rolled, and cookie-cut—the ornamental “cookies” then air dry on the counter for a couple of days, becoming surprisingly lightweight and a pretty, cinnamony color. The process is easy and kid-friendly, great to try at home for your seasonal decorations. Nancy let us photograph her at work, while supplying some tips … but no, don’t eat this dough! “I tried it,” Nancy says, “And it tastes terrible. It’s for crafting only!” Mixing and Rolling Ingredients 1 pound (16 oz.) cinnamon 3 pounds (large 48 …
Type: Blog
… back approximately 600 years. Originally, men and women arranged flowers as Buddhist offerings for altars at temples. Since then, ikebana has established itself as an art form beyond religious … style, the arranger is invited to remain silent. The silence creates a meditative space for the artist to connect with and appreciate nature more closely. For ikebana floral designer and Garden volunteer Shelley Galloway, the connection between nature …
Type: Blog
… and other fruit ripening in your kitchen, because it can attract fruit flies. Leave it there for three to five days, depending on the conditions. Natural “beasties” in the air (yeast) will … head of gunk on your seeds, remove that film and throw it away. (Unless you’d like to keep it for some reason.) If you can’t skim all of it, no worries, the remaining goo will rinse off in … look right. They are not viable. Let the seeds air dry on the wax paper in a protected place for about a week. 6. Store the completely dried seeds in an envelope until you are ready to use …
Type: Blog
… is the date we put Spike on public view!) . Several weeks later, Beccari saw a flowering plant for the first time. He sent a few tubers and seeds to Florence, Italy, but the tubers all … Kew, in England. There, in 1889, 11 years after its discovery, a titan arum plant flowered for the first time outside its tropical home. No one knows how common the titan arum is in the … known habitat is the rainforest of Sumatra, which is being steadily eroded by deforestation for palm oil production, by pollution, and by human encroachment. The corms are also being dug up …
Type: Blog
