… starter kits have sprouted every spring for the last ten years,” notes Google. “‘Plant mom’ is the new ‘dog mom.’” In 2023, stories on plants in popular culture often reflected ways in … its list of suggested names for houseplants. “Button,” of course, for a tiny succulent. You get the picture. Which name is not on the magazine’s list? Spice Girls (for a group of herb … plant story Twenty-eight percent of Americans have hugged their plants, according to a Trees.com survey—but if the plants don’t respond to touch, does it still count? As it turns out, some …
Type: Blog
… post, we demonstrated how plants respond to the gravitational pull of the earth. Geotropism is difficult to overcome, but that didn’t stop me from trying to make a plant grow sideways … Just for fun, I used several different seeds from a bean soup mix to see if one kind would get through the maze better than the others. It was like a bean-seed “race.” You can try whatever … activity, we changed that condition, forcing the beans to deviate from their normal course to get the light they needed. The sprouts that grew the farthest and were closest to completing the …
Type: Blog
… display on Bird Island prompts questions and reflection from the outset. That reaction is at the heart of the art installation Of Earth and Sky , created by poet Keli Stewart and … VeggieRx coordinator, who attended the youth workshop. “It was a way to express themselves and get them out of their shells a little bit.” After the workshops, Stewart took all the poetry and … fit. “So much of my own personal story and history is tied to Lawndale in particular, to a site right across from Farm on Ogden,” Stewart said. “My family’s church [was there], my daycare, …
Type: Blog
… three-quarters of all human food now comes from just eight species… Modern U.S. consumers now get to taste less than 1 percent of the vegetable varieties that were grown here a century ago." … year, make it mâche. Already famous in European gardens for its deliciously nutty taste, mâche is also famously cold tolerant—it can actually grow through Chicago winters in a cold frame or … catalogs or nurseries. A sample from the mixes available at Renee's Garden ( reneesgarden.com ): "Asian Baby Leaf Mix," Edible Landscape "Stardom," and "Heirloom Cutting Mix." A mix makes …
Type: Plant Info
… and keeps the display visually interesting late into the season.” Dahlias Simone Gore is an assistant grower for outdoor floriculture in the Garden’s Plant Production department. She … options, options Gore also weighed in on some of her other favorite fall florals. “Fall is a great time to think about plants like asters, heucheras, rudbeckias, anemones, dianthus, and … They hang over and cascade downward, creating movement and a nice lyrical flourish.” Balance is key When planning your display, says Pollak, “You're not always dwelling on a certain flower …
Type: Blog
… my children, and then my grandchildren, and even my great-grandchildren to Halloween [Night of 1,000 Jack-o’-Lanterns]. It gets bigger and better every year. [The Garden is] just a wonderful space without intrusions to enjoy the beauty of nature.” –June Hamer … of our members for helping us protect and celebrate the natural world since 1972. Our future is bright because of them. Some of the Garden’s 50-year members gathered in August 2022 for a …
Type: Blog
… bulbs that provide clumps of delicate flowers—and not just in May, but in February. Yes, now is the time to start planning and planting for an uplifting display of blooms—the early … white and green flowers are among the first to pop out of the ground in winter. Choose a site that gets about six hours of sun and has well-drained soil. Low areas that collect water in … brown. The leaves produce food that will carry the bulbs through the winter. Nina Koziol is a garden writer and horticulturist who lives and gardens in Palos Park, Illinois. …
Type: Plant Info
… them. We think the native winners approach will benefit wildlife at relatively low cost and get degraded sites on the road to recovery.” Havens, with Jacob Zeldin and other Garden colleagues, is using the grant to test this novel restoration method in the Forest Preserves of Cook County, …
Type: Research
… To feed, or not to feed, that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of empty bird … them. I hope William Shakespeare doesn’t mind me modifying his famous lines a little, but you get the idea. When winter arrives, we see the birds all fluffed-up out in the cold and wind and … negative impacts of bird feeding. For instance, one additional benefit is the opportunity to get involved in citizen science projects. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology in New York has a Feeder …
Type: Blog
… the best way to brighten your doorstep for the longest season of all: winter? The answer is the easiest kind of container gardening, even for the black thumbs among us. The key is … (artificial) 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 … last. Artificial winterberry will last through the season, but real berries break off or can get eaten by birds. Step 5: Wrap floral wire around pine cones and attach the other end to your …
Type: Blog
