… planted an herb container tower in the garden, so ideas were fresh on her mind when I talked with her. Here are her tips for starting an herb container, no matter where you live. Find the … container: Drainage is key for healthy herbs, says Hilgenberg, so make sure to find a pot with holes at the bottom. “I like to use terra cotta pots because they’re porous and absorb … planters. A hanging basket might work if that’s allowed on your porch, or a strawberry jar with a dozen holes in it. You can get really creative." Consider the light: Most herbs like at …
Type: Blog
… Well, here we are with another titan arum in bloom at the Chicago Botanic Garden. (Java, the taller of our Titan … conservation effort to preserve the species.) We do hope to pollinate one of the titan arums with pollen from an individual from another institution that has been stored “on ice” for just … signals to the plant, “job well done.” Perhaps at that point, there’s no need to continue with the energy-intense display. Dr. Pati Vitt checks out the pollination situation on our April …
Type: Blog
… the English Walled Garden is updated periodically. Renovations are made in consultation with the garden’s designer, renowned landscape architect John Brookes, Member of the British Empire (MBE). Brookes toured the garden in 2012 with Chicago Botanic Garden staff members, including Tim Johnson , director of horticulture, and … a new restoration project, the staff is rethinking the plantings. Some plants will be replaced with varieties that have more desirable qualities, such as disease resistance, increased vigor, a …
Type: Blog
… “Titan Tim” Pollak here, with today’s update on Spike, our first-ever corpse flower. The corm of an Amorphophallus … I felt that the overall look of the shoot was different than what we’d experienced before with shoots that become a leaf. (While the titan’s non-bloom form may look like a stalk with multiple leaves, it is actually a single, giant leaf!) Like every gardener, you develop a …
Type: Blog
… a light citrus fragrance and anthuriums don’t have any fragrance at all—many are real stinkers with common names like dead horse arum, dead mouse arum, and corpse flower. White Dynasty … Calcium oxylate crystals look like glass shards on steroids under a microscope and play havoc with the soft tissues of the inside of the mouth, tongue, and throat. The most notable food crop … andraeanum ‘White Heart’) is a classic anthurium flower of the florist trade in white with a red spadix; find it near the east entrance. Find Garfield anthurium ( Anthurium × …
Type: Blog
… The landscape architect for the Learning Campus , which opened in 2016, did a great job with the scale and placement of the plantings. Each year, the display is more impressive, as the … at the Sensory Garden You’ll see an explosion of early spring color here —violet-blue irises with yellow markings. But the blooms tend to be short-lived and fade quickly in warm weather. So … a cathedral of hundreds of fragrant flowering crabapples , starting in May. We planted these with a large-scale design in mind to create an impact in spring. The changing season in the …
Type: Blog
… With more than 1,850 known species of moths in the state of Illinois—more than ten times the … Woods at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Using a combination of light and bait traps along with visual searches, I have been investigating the diversity of moth species found in the … brightly and starkly colored on their hind wing. The cryptic forewing allows them to blend in with the tree trunks they are resting on; the hindwing only becomes visible when they spread …
Type: Blog
… For thousands of years, the death and regeneration of roots and organisms that interact with them have developed an amazingly fertile soil that has been exploited by agriculture to such … These organisms, which colonize root cells of the plant, engage in a symbiotic relationship with the roots of many prairie plant species—“symbiotic,” meaning both organisms benefit from the … structures indicative of endomycorrhizal fungi that support their symbiotic relationship with prairie plants. For the prairie plants, the fungi develops a network of very fine hyphae …
Type: Blog
… someone new, you want to know their name, what they do, what they like, right? Well, the same with plants. One important aspect of visiting a botanic garden is acknowledging its plant … in since the previous December, pull labels out of the drawers, assess the accuracy of labels with no name changes, check their appearance, and assemble and process label orders. These … 10,000 labels a year. How do we print our labels? This is our standard label, 2” x 4”, printed with a metalphoto process (photosensitive anodized aluminum); using silver letters with black …
Type: Blog
… work and play, students in Windy City Harvest’s Youth Farm program have learned to adapt too. With a new way of doing things, the Youth Farm found themselves up against a few obstacles, but … Farm has been really calming, especially during COVID-19. It helps me feel happy, especially with how the world is now, and compared to my other job. I love coming to the Farm. It’s been … our communities, and mindfulness. They also set healthy goals and received weekly kits of food with recipes and instructional videos to cook at home. The whole Youth Farm team had to quickly …
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