… 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 …
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… 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 …
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… 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 …
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… heads (Green Ball dianthus), and Engelmann creeper vine (for the bow) were all collected in the Fruit & Vegetable Garden. Circle, Ring, Wreath This is a BIG wreath—great for an outdoor … beautiful heirloom varieties with names like ‘Blue Jade’, ‘Glass Gem’, and ‘Golden Bantam’—in a seasonless sunburst. The French saying on this wreath translates to, “the moon is my light and my joy.” Even the branches of this wreath are made of raffia. A nursery grower in our production greenhouse by day, Lorin Fox is an artist and woodcarver off-hours. A close …
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… Winter weather in Chicago often has surprises. Snow covered the grass of the Elizabeth Hubert Malott Japanese Garden. This protected grass can expect good growth in spring. The yellow whips of this willow make an excellent contrast to the snow in most landscapes. The fruit of eastern wahoo ( Euonymous atropurpureus ) creates a striking …
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… Step past the sleepy stone lion, breathe in the cowslip primrose, and listen to the water trickle into an eighteenth-century lead … time? Work is underway to enhance the English Walled Garden’s magestical tapestry. Dedicated in 1991 by Princess Margaret, the younger sister of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, the English … Princess Margaret, by the way, wore a heavy, royal blue coat, buttoned to the collar; in a one-minute speech, she thanked the Garden for ensuring the authenticity of the English …
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… at the Garden from around the world. Sunshine the titan arum ( Amorphophallus titanum ) in the Sensory Garden Jack-in-the-Pulpit ( Arisaema triphyllum ) and Skunk Cabbage ( Symplocarpus foetidus ) are the two most common Chicago natives in this family. Other relatives hail from continents, regions, countries, and islands. Taxa …
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