… Obenchain conjures a feeling of mischief and magic. He wears a tattered straw hat, trimmed with a red poppy, that looks like something a scarecrow might wear. His bushy black eyebrows … bringing to mind the woolly bear caterpillars abundant in the fall. A playfulness—tinged with the macabre—also shows in the jack-o-lantern characters Obenchain created for HallowFest, the Garden’s former celebration of Halloween. Riley Obenchain poses with some enormous jack-o-lantern fodder in the Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Garden. Obenchain’s …
Type: Blog
… and visitors to the Chicago Botanic Garden recently experienced the fascinating bloom cycle with the titan arum Sprout. However, there is an additional denizen of the Araceae (a.k.a. Aroid, a.k.a. Arum) family with rare and exceptional attributes, which also bloomed at the Garden. Japanese cobra lily … individual plant can be male one year and female the next. Young plants produce male flowers with pollen until they are mature enough to produce fruit. When they have accumulated enough …
Type: Blog
… The combination of the reflexed petals, narrowing to a column of fused yellow anthers with a needle-like style protruding from the central core of the anthers creates a perfect … in prairies and is a member of the primrose family. Roosterheads is comical but descriptive. With a white feathered head on an arching neck with a yellow beak, the plant’s resemblance to the animal is easy to see if you subtract the red …
Type: Blog
… grasses to small perennials, herbs to large vegetables. Also, be sure to use a container with drainage holes to avoid root rot and water logging. The next item you’ll need is a rich, … nutrient-filled, potting soil. If you’re using a large container, filling the entire container with soil will make it heavy and difficult to move. Placing light, mesh landscape materials … Find Better Than Rocks drainage mesh—used in the bottom of our pot—at your local nursery. With the container(s) set and filled, we are now ready to plant our home horticultural therapy …
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… of varieties of bulbs imported directly from growers in Holland. The members’ presale, with discounted prices, starts September 1; the public sale is September 9 to 25. Order pick-ups … One of my favorite combinations is an April bloomer, Narcissus 'Jet Fire' (yellow with orange cup) and Muscari armeniacum (purple grape hyacinth). Eranthis hyemali s (bright … perennials without disturbing the light they will need to grow. I also like to plant Eranthis with daffodils and narcissus under a pine tree. It is a good source of food for early …
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… evergreens (such as junipers) and corkscrew willows. If taste dictates, you can bling out with bells, bows, glitter, or other embellishments. Here’s how Heather does it: Star Wreath … form the star shape; tape the final joint together. Secure the inner joints of the base star with zip ties. Make the top layer: You will need the longer and shorter bundles of branches, zip ties, raffia, floral wire, and optional Christmas lights. Start with the longer bundles of twigs: Lay the first bundle along a base branch, positioning the cut …
Type: Blog
… that orange radiates warmth and happiness by combining the energy and stimulation of red with the cheerfulness of yellow. Over the years in the Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Garden, we've … and ahhhhs and squeals of delight, as folks of all ages decided how best to connect with the fruit: Is it real? Should I touch it? Should I sit on it? Hug it? Photograph it? People … are some fall beauties that we've been reminiscing about lately: Cucurbita maxima are squash with softer rinds and flesh, growing on long vines with large, hairy leaves. Harder-skinned …
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… interest to display in our collections. Invariably, some of the treasures we return with are unanticipated. Such was our discovery of a very large population of Paeonia tenuifolia … of the Dakotas. We were in search of seeds of unusual bulbs in the Vashlovani Nature Reserve with Peter Zale from Longwood Gardens (the trip organizer), Panyoti Kelaidis from the Denver … Institute of Botany, Ilia State University. It was one of those breathtakingly beautiful days, with the rolling grasslands backdropped by the snow-covered peaks of the Greater Caucasus …
Type: Blog
… of the vanilla orchid. Vanilla is an exciting plant to study because it grows as a vine with two different types of roots. These roots help vanilla grow as a vine (more precisely a … support, but what other functions do they perform? Do they also form symbiotic relationships with fungal partners to obtain nutrients and water, like terrestrial roots? Monocultures—crops with genetically identical heritage—are common in vanilla cultivation. The fungal partners of …
Type: Blog
… in the Midwest, the editors asked for recommendations of award-worthy plants and then came up with a list of great plants that gardeners can count on. (I was happy to note some of the winners … , as well as plants I’ve grown and loved for a long time.) Here’s my short list—including one with crazy beautiful flowers and one that’s so easy to grow that you basically just plant it in … deadheading. Compact, wide-spreading plants (24 inches tall and 48 inches wide) are covered with a continuous display of violet-blue flowers from spring into fall; if you’re thinking that …
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