… at the Garden. While managing some tall vegetation on the gravel hill of the Dixon Prairie in summer 2016, I noticed something I have not seen in a while. It was a thistle! Hill’s thistle ( Cirsium hillii ) Hill’s thistle ( Cirsium hillii ) … Cirsium canadensis ), which is a non-native weed that is commonly seen along the roadsides and in your garden. What I stumbled on was Hill’s thistle ( Cirsium hillii ), considered rare in the …
Type: Blog
… to line them with a plastic bag or insert a plastic cup or pot. If you want to keep the plants in this container for any length of time, you’ll need to provide drainage or the roots will rot. Follow directions from Tim Pollack for planting a terrarium in this YouTube video . You may have to alter the container to make it work. I had to take apart a toy drum to turn it into a planter for beets. (Beets in a drum—get it? If you want to impress, don’t shy away from puns, references to popular …
Type: Blog
… background. Most perennials are deciduous. They go dormant when their above-ground parts die in the fall and then rely on the energy and nutrient reserves stored in underground roots during the winter. Why do they stay green so long? Well, evergreen leaves contain what’s called lignin— the same polymer in the cell walls of woody plants—throughout their veins and surrounding tissues. This makes them …
Type: Blog
… that only one of us had ever tasted before: powdered orchid roots. A traditional winter drink in the cafés and restaurants of Turkey, salep is made from the tuberous roots of orchids—specifically, terrestrial orchids in the genus Orchis . Dried and powdered, the resulting flour is combined in a drink mix with other ingredients, much as hot chocolate or chai spices would be: sugar, …
Type: Blog
… D.C., to Japan and finally here to the Chicago Botanic Garden, where I am the curator in charge of the Bonsai Collection , which is known as one of the best of its kind in the world. Shortly after I purchased my first tree, I started learning about bonsai and joined a prominent bonsai club in Gainesville. In 2006, Gainesville (home of the Gators) hosted the State Bonsai Convention. …
Type: Blog
… entirely dependent on what they could produce themselves, as were the early American settlers. In time, a fruitful garden became a common symbol of independence from foreign imports—highlighting a new American pride in agriculture. The farm-to-table movement of today epitomizes the fruit-growing traditions of … past by “growing as close to the plate as possible.” Sweet, juicy fruit can be easily grown in gardens of all sizes: on small urban lots, in containers on terraces, or in large suburban …
Type: Blog
… Tom Tiddens has worked at the Chicago Botanic Garden in the Plant Health Care department for 25 years. In 1994, Tiddens was promoted to supervisor of the department. Since then, the department has … duties involve protecting the Garden's plant collections from diseases, pests, and weeds in an environmentally sensitive manner. Tiddens is a certified arborist through the International …
Type: Staff bio
… back story of the Chicago Botanic Garden—which starts long before the Garden’s groundbreaking in 1965. Next time you visit the Garden, take a closer look at the topography and you can still … Garden was established on land created by glaciers that retreated more than 13,000 years ago. In their wake, they left a great watershed that includes the Chicago River and its tributaries. … and settlers for fire. The river and marshes, which once posed persistent flooding problems in the Skokie River Valley, became an asset in the Garden’s design. The Garden’s brilliant …
Type: Blog
… to begin a bloom cycle. Our corpse flowers ( Amorphophallus titanum ) are now on display in a variety of life stages: in fruit, leaf, and imminent bloom. You might remember Spike and Alice in 2015: Spike failed to bloom but provided so much excitement; and Alice the Amorphophallus …
Type: Blog
… this past weekend. The titan arum, native to the rainforests of the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, was first “discovered” by Italian botanist Odoardo Beccari in 1878. On August 6, 1878, he first observed the leaves and fruits of a plant (interestingly, … eventually germinated. One of those seedlings was sent to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in England. There, in 1889, 11 years after its discovery, a titan arum plant flowered for the …
Type: Blog
