… blooms of Linaria ‘Enchantment’, which looks like a mini-snapdragon. Whatever it takes to get you to stop and feel spring in the Buehler Enabling Garden. People sometimes walk right by … therapy garden. She likes to surprise them. “The Buehler Enabling Garden in spring is all about happiness!” she said. “I plant flowers that are colorful and scented, even a bit … “I stick with total crowd pleasers that people connect with right away,” Green said, “and I get your attention with a ton of flowers.” Favorites include old favorites like bright yellow …
Type: Blog
… seeds. In camps and youth classes at the Chicago Botanic Garden, we encourage little ones to get their hands dirty as they explore the natural world. We’ve got lots of ideas for projects you can do at home to get kids thinking about plants and how they grow. Here’s how to make just one of our favorite … marker A plate or tray Rubber bands, pipe cleaners, or other items (optional) *Vermiculite is a soil amendment that can be purchased at a garden supply store. It expands when soaked in …
Type: Blog
… arrival, one can’t help but daydream about greener pastures, or in my case, lawns. Now is the time for spring lawn maintenance. The main purpose of spring lawn care is to get the turf through the summer months. Cool-season grasses such as Kentucky bluegrass, perennial … start in the spring. Listed below are some things to do in April and May. Spring Lawn Tips 1. Rake Rake up debris from the lawn with a stiff metal rake. Using a stiff metal leaf rake, go …
Type: Blog
… and Travis Shupe while they were programming installations for this year’s Lightscape . Get ready for some insider tips! First, it’s remarkable to think about how many talented people collaborate to make Lightscape such a magical event. Lightscape is produced in partnership with Sony Music and creatively produced by Culture Creative. Planning … specialists, and programming and data managers all help bring the installations to life. This is the second year Chicago-based lighting designers Fiskness and Shupe have worked on Lightscape. …
Type: Blog
… of dice you make will depend on the game you want to play, but for all games the basic idea is the same. Players will toss the seeds and the side that lands face up is the number they … the seed. I write all the numbers with the point of the seed on the bottom so 6s and 9s don’t get confused. Here are some games you can make: To make a game of “Count the Dots,” draw dots on … can vary this depending on the skills of the children. For early learners, make two each of 1, 2, and 3. For children practicing higher number adding, make a range from 1 to 9. To practice …
Type: Blog
… your garden. In the long run, these items are like a little insurance policy for your plants. 1. Rain Gauge The weather report calls for rain. We get a downpour for 15 or 30 minutes and may think that’s good enough. But that short shower only … are in a full flush of foliage, raindrops often bounce off the leaves, and if the shower is brief, the soil below remains dry. Think about a tomato plant or a hydrangea and how deep …
Type: Plant Info
… the Prairie Series Rosa setigera , or Illinois rose, grows in moist prairies and thickets, and is a typical wild rose in many ways: five pink petals, with lots of yellow stamens in the center … this country to serve as a living fence in pastures. Livestock found it just as miserable to get tangled up in its thorns, as do humans, and were content to stay within its boundaries. Also, … landscape are almost always male because females have fruits with a terrible odor. In order to get holly berries on your holly shrubs, you need to plant a few male shrubs to ensure the female …
Type: Blog
… gray and brown winter. Yet as much as we love to drape them with holiday lights, they often get less respect and care than color-shifting roses and Japanese maples. Evergreen trees and … the ground freezes — which in some winters may not be until after Christmas. "Winter kill" is the term horticulturists use for the patches of dried-out foliage often seen on evergreens in … for example, normally drop their oldest needles in late summer. "As long as the newest growth is green," Bell says, "it's okay if you see needles shedding further back on the branch." …
Type: Plant Info
… Is it Spring or Winter? Flowers Wage Their Bets As if on cue, tiny green leaves peek out from the … false start,” said Paul CaraDonna, Ph.D., a Chicago Botanic Garden conservation scientist. “It is important to keep in mind that plants have long dealt with variable and unpredictable … things up beyond the ‘reasonable conditions’ plants are used to such that they might start to get fooled.” And They’re Off These plants got a jump on spring Unseasonably warm days have …
Type: Blog
… saving our special discovery for last. I got everyone’s attention and announced, “This is extremely rare! As a butterfly wrangler, I have released many thousands of butterflies, but … be a valuable contribution to science, and if nothing else, something that everyone should get a chance to see. I tried to find and capture it so an expert could take a closer look. A full … a W and a Z chromosome for female and male, respectively. Sometimes, the W and Z chromosomes get stuck together during cell division, resulting in a mixture of male and female traits. In …
Type: Blog
