… for our staff, our visitors, our volunteers, and our boards. Part of that process is to take a hard look at the stories the Garden tells about gardens, plants, and people. We do … to tell underlying stories that may be offensive. This approach ignores cause-and-effect, and is tone-deaf. For example, take Carolus Linnaeus, whose statue we feature in the Heritage Garden. … we publish, and part of virtually every class we teach. What we disregard about Linnaeus is that he also classified people, and he used inferior terms for all who weren’t European and …
Type: Blog
… A longtime favorite of staff and visitors alike, the zebra longwing ( Heliconius charitonius ) is native from South America to south Texas and Florida, and occasionally an immigrant can be found as far north as Nebraska! The zebra longwing is the state butterfly of Florida. One very interesting thing about these beauties is that they roost communally in groups of 25 to 30 butterflies. In the Butterflies & Blooms …
Type: Blog
… Tom Soulsby is the senior horticulturist for the Rose Garden, Heritage Garden, and Linden Allée. He is responsible for curating and maintaining a collection of more than 5,000 roses in one of the … Garden's Employee of Distinction award and as an Outstanding College First Mentor. Soulsby is also responsible for both supervising and coordinating the horticulture of diverse group of …
Type: Staff bio
… to it as the “abominable mystery.” The quest to answer why we have so many flowering plants is still ongoing and has made flowers a model group to answer important questions about speciation. One particularly challenging aspect of the mystery is how new forms arise and spread. Given flowers’ specialized structure, modifications can result … common form. For this reason, variation in floral shape, color, or scent within a population is often rare, but still can occur. When we see variation in floral forms within a population, …
Type: Research
… A striking century plant is putting on a show in the final stages of its life—it’s blooming for the first and only time in … right before it dies. In the Arid Greenhouse at the Chicago Botanic Garden, Agave ocahui is known as the century plant because people used to think it flowered only once every 100 years. A more accurate estimate is that it blooms once after 25 to 30 years of growth. The Garden’s century plant came from The …
Type: Blog
… it’s time to start thinking about moving your houseplants inside. The best time to do this is when temperatures outside are relatively close to the temperatures indoors, meaning mid- to … spots on leaves. Trimming off damaged leaves helps keep plants looking good all winter. 1. Clean up any dead or damaged growth. Why bring any additional mess indoors when you don’t have … unsightly growth from your plants. 2. Lightly trim back plants as needed. This step is optional, and you really only need to do it if your plants have become large and overgrown. …
Type: Blog
… can also be an expensive endeavor for the home gardener. The first step in prepping the beds is removing the top layer of soil. Plantings include succulents and drought-hardy plants. They … garden. This season, as a trial, we are converting ten island beds in parking lot 1 to gravel garden beds. These beds are covered by 4 to 5 inches of pea gravel. The gravel allows plants to grow in sharp drainage, which is a very desirable attribute when growing many native prairie plants or other dry-loving plants. …
Type: Blog
… steps in the brewing process? And what do all those colorful beer-making terms mean? Step 1: Choosing the grain The basic brewing process begins with grains—generally barley, but also … grains are grasses with a special type of seed called a caryopsis . Inside a caryopsis is an embryo and a large, starchy food reserve (called the endosperm) that plays a key role in … the beer-making process. Step 2: Making the malt As a grain seed germinates, its food reserve is converted from starch into smaller carbohydrates. This conversion process is important for the …
Type: Blog
… and others. The national flower of Brazil— Cattleya purpurata (formerly Laelia purpurata) —is also an orchid. The native orchids of Brazil are often epiphytes growing on trees and shrubs, … elevations in cloud forests. The care of Brazilian orchids and their hybrids in cultivation is as varied as the number of species and their habitats, but where they naturally occur provides … the species. Cattleya coccinea is a diminutive grower, with cylindrical pseudobulbs less than 1 inch tall, each topped by a solitary leaf all of 2 to 3 inches in height. A clue you are giving …
Type: Blog
… chomping at the bit to plant this native shrub. It’s unfortunate, because the chokeberry is one of the best shrubs you can grow in Illinois. Iroquois Beauty™ chokeberry ( Aronia melanocarpa ‘Morton’) is starting to ripen. The beautiful black fruit stays on the plant longer than some other … The white, butterfly-attracting flowers are arranged in little celestial spheres that are 1 to 2 inches in diameter, emerging between late May and late July (depending on the region). …
Type: Blog
