Bring your dancing shoes and best air guitar moves. It's time to get rockin’ with Leonardo. He is a Parents' Choice Award-winning family musician from Chicago, who strums nationwide on his electric orange guitar. He performs a humorous, high-energy concert that entertains, educates, and empowers all little rockers. Get ready to sing along to familiar hits and some movin' and groovin' original …
Type: Event for Calendar
Dark, silvery purple baseball-sized blooms on 24- to 30-inch tall stems characterize Allium ‘Firmament’. For naturalizing, this cultivar is best grown in full sun in sandy/gravely soils that remain dry from midsummer through fall. Alliums attract a number of pollinating insects, including butterflies, moths, and bees. Chipmunks, rabbits, and deer find the strong onion flavor of the flowers, …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
Allium 'Ping Pong' is a mid-summer flowering ornamental onion producing pink-tinged buds that mature to white flowers. The flowers have a cup shape and a fringed appearance. Plant 'Ping Pong' in soil that dries between watering, in full sun, and in groups for best effect. Pest and disease resistant if soils allowed to dry after the plant flowers and goes dormant. This can often be achieved by …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
During what is winter in North America, spider aloe ( Aloe × spinosissima ) produces a profusion of unbranched spikes of brilliant orange-red flowers—a favorite of hummingbirds in its native growing region of South Africa. This hybrid will tolerate temperatures down to 25 degrees Fahrenheit for short periods of time, but it grows best in full sun, in frost-free environments with well-drained …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
Pale green flowers mature to white and take on a pinkish cast with age. Best performance is achieved in partial shaded, moist garden soils. The foliage is persistent in very mild winters but deciduous most years in Chicago. Deer find the flowers and leaves objectionable. Wild collected by Chicago Botanic Garden staff in the Republic of Georgia along the roadside near Borjomi (famous for naturally …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
Learn tips and techniques used by professional gardeners through a combination of lecture and hands-on activities. Acquire solid gardening skills, learn a variety of techniques, and determine best management practices in the field of horticulture. Gain applicable skills in plant selection, perennial and annual care and maintenance, pruning techniques, tool maintenance, and identification and …
Type: Item Detail
The weeping white pine is a semi-dwarf cultivar of the species. While the species may grow to over 100’ tall, this weeping form typically grows to 6-15’ tall with a larger spread (ultimate size depends upon pruning and training). Branches typically spread horizontally for a short distance before drooping. Flexible foliage is green to blue-green and may be 5” long. The needs grow in bundles of …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
Cottonless cottonwood ( Populus deltoides 'Siouxland') is a deciduous pyramid-shaped tree that grows to 70 feet tall and 40 feet wide. A fast-growing tree with heart-shaped leaves that turn yellow in the fall, it is a male cultivar and does not produce the cottony seedpods common to other poplars. A messy tree with soft lightweight wood that breaks easily in storms, it can also be susceptible to …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
Quaking aspen is a rounded deciduous tree that grows 40-50 feet tall and 20-30 feet wide and is the most widely distributed tree occurring in North America. A fast-growing tree, it is known for its white bark and green leaves that quake in even the slightest breeze and turn golden yellow in the fall. Quaking aspen grows best in colder climates in full sun and well-drained soil; it is not tolerant …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
Palest pink petals surround the fragrant pinky-apricot cup on this late season jonquil narcissus with two or more flowers per stem. Plant this narcissus in a location where the honey-like fragrance can be enjoyed. Some members of the Jonquilla group do not reliably return after the first year of flower. This narcissus flowers best in full sun and moderately fertile soils. Rabbits, deer, …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
