… Why not try growing some plants indoors? Better still, why not experiment with your plants to understand them better? In this activity, you will confuse a bean sprout and … The timing will depend on the level of light and the temperature. That’s the way it goes with growing plants. Horticulturists – the people who grow plants – are some of the most patient … grow down. This phenomenon may also be called gravitropism. The Garden’s horticulturists play with gravitropism. Look at this picture of the Visitor Center bridge in fall. Notice the gorgeous …
Type: Blog
… like fungi and microbes engage in biotrophic and saprotrophic ecological interactions with the animal and plant communities. This study is focusing on the evolutionary consequences of … organismal communities by examining the diversity and distribution of macrofungi associated with oaks in Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia. Oaks are hosts to diverse ectomycorrhizal and …
Type: Research
… from the extinction of dinosaurs. The new report describes more than 500 fossil specimens with distinctive legume features and includes the earliest evidence of Caesalpinioideae (honey … years ago. These legume fossils grew in the earliest rainforest of South America together with such giant reptiles of this epoch including Titanoboa (the largest known snake) and …
Type: Research
… Embellishments: pine cones Tools: floral wire, pruners, garden gloves Step 1: Fill container with wood mulch to weigh your container down so it won’t blow over in the wind and to hold the … to desired height for container. Add upright stems of fir and spruce first, then fill in with pine and cedar. Step 4: Add dogwood and winterberry last. Artificial winterberry will last …
Type: Blog
… of the year. They are grown out in 3-inch plastic pots, removed, and placed in bonsai pots with the root ball untouched or wired down. Most trees are covered with standard potting mix instead of bonsai soil, which can retain too much moisture for many … midwestern homes tend to be dry in the winter (due to heating), so misting your trees daily with a spray bottle is also a good idea. Doing this will increase the humidity and prevent leaf …
Type: Blog
… colorful beer-making terms mean? Step 1: Choosing the grain The basic brewing process begins with grains—generally barley, but also rice, wheat, and/or sorghum. Botanically speaking, grains are grasses with a special type of seed called a caryopsis . Inside a caryopsis is an embryo and a large, … in their brew. Roasting, for example, affects depth of color and flavor, while using malts with different diastic powers —that ability to convert starch into sugar—affects sweetness. The …
Type: Blog
… well, they’re alive. Plants can be passed down through generations, and spread and shared with family and friends. At the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Unearth Science festival last year, a … this, she reminds us, “please remember to share your plant love frequently, particularly with kids.” Dave Sollenberger , ecologist and manager of the Dixon National Tallgrass Prairie Seed Bank, credits his parents and teachers with nurturing him on his botanical path, as he wrote in his story, "Plant Lovers Beget Plant …
Type: Blog
… and welcome visitors back when it is safe to do so. Our 385 acres are a living museum, filled with plants, trees, and shrubs that are under cultivation. Like objects in any museum, plants in … Collection requires detailed styling on an ongoing basis. All of that has been a challenge with the closing of the Garden because of the COVID-19. The safety of our horticulture staff and … Tom Soulsby oversaw the removal of protective winter material from the Krasberg Rose Garden, with a reduced crew, widely spaced out. Senior horticulturist Heather Sherwood gave the boxwood …
Type: Blog
… steps to protect these plants. If you have some perennials in a warm area of the garden with more pronounced growth, they might benefit from a light layer of mulch. For the most part, … for most gardeners to do in their perennial beds. Even in great weather for pruning, proceed with care. Spring-flowering shrubs like viburnums, lilacs, and forsythia set their flower buds … pruning, which is the aggressive pruning of overgrown shrubs to bring them back into scale with the garden. Shrubs like hydrangea (except oak leaf hydrangea), potentilla, and spirea that …
Type: Blog
… general shape and size to be a coyote. The coyote track looks like that of a medium-sized dog, with padded feet making toe impressions in the snow. The tracks formed a few paths across the … and leaves tracks like these. Was the coyote playing? Hunting? Running away? If you’re walking with someone, especially kids, it’s fun to come up with a story. I was also hoping to find evidence of animals interacting. The closest thing I …
Type: Blog
