… 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 …
Type: Blog
… 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 …
Type: Blog
… College in Environmental Science and Sustainability, seasonal work in the Garden’s summer camp with the former manager of Youth and Family Programs, Amy Wells, and in the Elizabeth Hubert … it’s those “soft skills,” cultivated by members of the Garden’s team, that helped her deal “with a lot of problems I didn’t realize I was going to have and didn’t necessarily know how to deal with,” she said. In the summer camps, for example, “Amy [Wells] knew what needed to get done, yet …
Type: Blog
… nutrients? The pretty pitcher plant ( Sarracenia leucophylla) , for instance, attracts insects with nectar. Insects slip down the “pitcher” part of the plant and are liquified in the digestive … even distance separating the modified leaves from the flowers, plants have evolved to deal with this huge challenge. Keep in mind, these plants would fail if they were eating their … into mini bogs? We installed pond liner a foot deep in each container and filled them with 50 percent washed silica sand and 50 percent sphagnum peat moss. Then we filled them with …
Type: Blog
… The game could be adapted for another location by replacing the image of the Lake Michigan with an image to represent the local water source. (For most cities, that is groundwater.) I discovered, to my surprise, that many of my Brownie Scouts were not familiar with board games. Most millennials have lots of experience pushing virtual buttons on a screen … competing against friends in cyberspace, but tossing a die and moving a token around a board with actual friends? Not so much. Anyone replicating this activity may find they need to explain …
Type: Blog
… leaf can. When it closes its wings, the butterfly has a perfectly ovate silhouette, complete with both a pointed leaf apex at the front tip and a petiole, or the stalk that attaches leaf to stem, on the hindside. The wing is a drab brown, with leaf vein arrangement very similar to that of a flowering dogwood. The orange dead leaf butterfly is at home in broadleaf forests of India, where it blends in with dead foliage during the dry season, going unnoticed by all but the sharpest predators. Here …
Type: Blog
… Like many children, I was fascinated with Beatrix Potter, the creator of The Tale of Peter Rabbit. I remember wanting to visit Hill … Geographic my parents had. Picturesque Hill Top Farm was purchased by Beatrix Potter in 1905 with proceeds from the sale of her first book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit . Photo by Richerman … Library. The exhibition gives wonderful insight into Potter’s early life and career, along with her love of nature and preservation. Here are ten things from the exhibition and beyond that …
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