… of teaching families with young children at the Chicago Botanic Garden. It is a gift to work in a garden with children because there is so much about gardening that we can use to help them … know that young children are active learners. The best teaching occurs when we join that child in hands-on, developmentally appropriate play. A backyard garden, a small container on a porch, … perseverance, and a sense wonder. Young children have an innate curiosity that thrives in direct sensory experiences. Think about small hands in mud or splashing water, tasting herbs, …
Type: Blog
… which looks like a mini-snapdragon. Whatever it takes to get you to stop and feel spring in the Buehler Enabling Garden. People sometimes walk right by the brick pillars of the Enabling … the horticulture therapy garden. She likes to surprise them. “The Buehler Enabling Garden in spring is all about happiness!” she said. “I plant flowers that are colorful and scented, even … More than one million spring blooms have started to unfurl at the Chicago Botanic Garden, in areas including the Enabling Garden . Green is still planting last-minute flowers; blooms …
Type: Blog
… Guillermo Patino has worked in the Grounds department since 1991, when he started out as a seasonal employee. He was promoted to Grounds crew leader in 2009. Patino has broad expertise in landscaping, particularly in pruning trees and shrubs. You can see his work at the Linden …
Type: Staff bio
… Roof Garden South Josephine P. & John J. Louis Foundation Green Roof Garden North Bernice E. Lavin Plant Evaluation Garden Ayse Pogue is the senior horticulturist for the Malott Japanese … South, the Josephine P. & John J. Louis Foundation Green Roof Garden North, and the Bernice E. Lavin Plant Evaluation Garden. In addition, Pogue assists with gardening classes, leads tours, and gives demonstrations. Pogue …
Type: Staff bio
… Looking for a reason to be glad for the cold weather in winter’s stretch? Consider the needs of fruit trees. Fruit trees need to spend a certain amount of time during their dormant winter period at cool temperatures in order to satisfy their chill requirement. Simply defined, the accumulation of chill units (CU) … tree’s biological clock. This clock counts down the time needed to change the nutrients stored in the roots into a form that can flow up the trunk as the weather warms and support flowering …
Type: Blog
… forcing branches to bloom indoors. Spring-flowering trees and shrubs form their flower buds in late summer or fall before the plants go dormant for the winter. The buds can be forced into bloom indoors in late winter or early spring. magnolia ( Magnolia ) crabapple or apple ( Malus ) redbud ( Cercis ) In order to flower, the buds need to undergo a period of cold. Once the branches are indoors in …
Type: Blog
… weed and wonder what kind of plant it is? We’d love for you to stumble across the answer—right in front of you. Inspired by a movement by French botanists, my 5-year-old daughter and I decided to become street botanists for the day. We would identify plants in the neighborhood and write their names in chalk on the sidewalk. In the past year or so, botanists and other plant lovers began chalking …
Type: Blog
… buds ( Paeonia ‘Red Charm’) look like alien asparagus pushing their way out of the ground in the Farwell Landscape Garden. Cooler temperatures may slow growth for most plants, but they … colors to develop. These peony stems have a deep burgundy color that is highly ornamental in an otherwise empty bed. Eventually these will grow out into large bushy plants with showy red … the unique form of the new growth. Many geranium varieties also feature beautiful new growth in the spring. Geranium ‘Blue Sunrise’ in the Dwarf Conifer Garden has gorgeous bright green …
Type: Blog
… Think about this vegetable fact: In 1903, 544 varieties of cabbage were listed by seed houses across the United States. By 1983, just 28 of those varieties were represented in our national seed bank at the National Seed Storage Laboratory (now the National Center for … but also of lettuce and corn and tomatoes and too many other crops to list. And that, in a nutshell, is why it continues to be important to plant heirloom varieties. Vintage …
Type: Blog
… Early summer in the Dwarf Conifer Garden is all about the new growth. Everything is bursting forth with fresh new growth in vivid shades of green, chartreuse, yellow…and blue! Layers of color draw you into hidden … needles aren’t the only attraction this time of year. Many conifers have cones that start out in surprising shades! Blue Mound Swiss stone pine ( Pinus cembra ‘Blue Mound’) would be a …
Type: Blog
