… How to relax in nature, even when you can’t get away? Daydream, according to the American Heart Association. … of everyday life. We started a bucket list for you, focusing on some of the natural wonders in the plant world. We know, oh, just a few plant geeks here at the Chicago Botanic Garden. So we asked some of them: What plant would you most like to see in the wild? The common thread is that there is no common thread. These are not your …
Type: Blog
… Most people recognize that familiar call of the black-capped chickadee. It’s often heard in late summer and fall as chickadees gather in family groups and small feeding flocks to prepare for the winter. The chickadee’s … often with nuthatches, titmice, and other small songbirds. West Nile, which came to the U.S. about 17 years ago, likely may not have affected black-capped chickadees as much as some …
Type: Blog
… In November, I had the unique opportunity to go to the Portland Japanese Garden for a week-long training session—and what a week it was! I arrived in Portland in early November, having endured scarily bumpy plane rides and torrential rains. The next day …
Type: Blog
… Karenina principle states that “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” When we talk about rare species we tend to think of them as a collective group that shares similar traits, however, some argue that “every rare species is rare in its own way”. Rabinowitz (1981) showed that all common species had wide ranges, large … all have important consequences for gene flow and population structure. I am interested in the population genetics of rare species, and what that can tell us for about the management of …
Type: Staff bio
… When spring unfurls, the trillium are among the stars of the native wildflowers—and in coming years, the show at the Chicago Botanic Garden will be even more spectacular. A ground-level view of forest trilliums in spring bloom White trillium ( Trillium grandiflorum ) Little sweet Betsy ( Trillium cuneatum ) … rare and considered endangered. Trillium are so beloved that they have appeared on two U.S. Postal Service stamps. …
Type: Blog
… Some vegetables are more satisfying than others when it comes to harvest. Parsnips are in that category. The sun was out, the air was crisp, and the nights were frosty: parsnip weather. Cold weather is actually a good thing for parsnips—in fact, they need it to convert the starch in their roots to sugar, transforming them from lowly, nose-turned-up roots to gourmet, thumbs-up …
Type: Blog
… Star-of-Bethlehem, and cyclamen are welcome additions to winter white. Hippeastrum ‘Amalfi’ in the Semitropical Greenhouse Hippeastrum papilio by Jerry Richardson from Warsaw, Indiana [ … Amaryllis Amaryllis ( Hippeastrum ) are probably the best-known bulb grown for forcing indoors in the winter months. In recent years, plant breeders have introduced dozens of new varieties ranging in size from …
Type: Blog
… Sometime around midsummer, we all look at our yards, filled in and blooming, and think about designing something new, dividing plants, or perhaps creating a new hedge. Attractive native shrubs are often overlooked—and occasionally hard to come by in local nurseries and garden centers—but they are well worth the effort to find. Already adapted … 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. …
Type: Blog
… Boyce Tankersley, director of Living Plant Documentation, takes us on a tour of what’s blooming in the display gardens on the first day of fall. Sweeps of perennials on Evening Island, the cascading mums on the Visitor Center bridge, and masses of mums in the Crescent Garden are found in the boundaries of our formal garden areas. Our show doesn’t end there, however. Find gorgeous …
Type: Blog
… at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Gabriela started working at the Garden as a volunteer, working in the Production and Plant Documentation Departments. During that time, she learned everything … a schedule for the Integrated Pest Management scouting program that assisted Production staff in decision-making. She was hired to be the labeling coordinator, a job she did for a decade, … -now close to 10,000 labels a year. During that time, she labeled and tagged unique taxa in the Garden and Greenhouses and assisted with plant inventories. Gabriela managed projects …
Type: Staff bio
