… Tiers of feathery downy bluish foliage on a broadly upright habit provide a 'soft' texture to the landscape 12 months a year. Hardy in the Chicago area when provided sun to partial shaded conditions in moisure retentive soils. Deer don't find the foliage particularly tasty to eat. …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… Violet-blue flowers are produced continuously from June to early September on this nonhardy perennial adapted to full sun and dry soils. The flowers are attractive to a wide range of pollinators, and the leaves contain a fragrance that deer and rabbits do not …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… that overlook Lake Michigan: these are the magnets that attract people interested in history to visit cemeteries. We will explore both Lake Forest and Graceland cemeteries. Students should be able to walk at least one mile and must provide their own transportation to the off-property locations. Limited to 12 students. The School’s CEUs=12 hours FPC elective …
Type: Item Detail
… New! Assemble and decorate a gingerbread house in this cooking class. Learn how to make royal icing and use a pastry bag. As students decorate, a light dinner will be prepared … with cabbage and buttered noodles. Decorations will be provided; students are encouraged to bring additional candies to add to their 4- x 6- x 8-inch house. Mary Kay Gill, professional culinary instructor ITW …
Type: Item Detail
… decorative flowers shade towards cream in their centers. This cultivar blooms from July up to the first hard frosts - typically around mid-October. The sturdy stems may need staking in high-wind impact areas of the garden as the weight of the blooms starts to pull the plants in one direction or another. Despite dahlia's lack of fragrance, the flowers attract a number of insect pollinators and hummingbirds to the garden to feast upon nectar and pollen grains. …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… Summer snowflake ( Leucojum aestivum ) needs full sun to partial shade and moderate moisture conditions to reach a height of 18 inches. A native of Europe and southwest Asia, this bulb produces a flowering stalk with one to two nodding white flowers with green markings, and it has several strap-like leaves. Reliably …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… inches across on uniform, bushy 1-foot plants. Zinnias are annuals in the aster family native to Mexico. Easy to grow with vivid flowers, they are a good choice for introducing youngsters to growing plants by seed. They can be sown directly into average soil after the danger of frost …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… When I was 8 years old, I traveled with my family to Przysietnica, Poland, to spend the summer with relatives. My grandparents’ farm was the home base for my adventures … wild and tasted like candy. We often brought some back to share with the family, but there is nothing quite like a strawberry fresh off the plant. First described by the ancient Romans, …
Type: Blog
… at the Chicago Botanic Garden, there are dragonflies everywhere! The quick, strong fliers seem to love the Garden. Eastern pondhawk dragonfly, female. Most dragonflies have very … field of vision that helps it avoid predators. The most abundant dragonfly I’ve seen is the eastern pondhawk, with blue dasher dragonflies coming in a close second. I’m also seeing … a few damselflies, which are generally smaller and more thin-bodied than dragonflies and tend to hold their wings above their bodies. (See my blog post Damselflies 101 for more information.) …
Type: Blog
… Long-eared owls are nomadic birds, found abundantly some years and difficult or impossible to find others. Choosing their locations based on prey abundance (small mammals, like mice and … groups in winter roosts where a dozen or more birds can be found together. They are also known to perform a broken-wing act in order to draw predators away from the nest sites, not unlike the behavior many people associate with …
Type: Birding
