… One of my signature projects at the Chicago Botanic Garden is designing and building the hypertufa troughs for the Heritage Garden spring display. While our … is a unique and lasting piece of garden artistry. Here is how we make them at the Garden: STEP 1 Create a wooden frame with an open top and bottom. We build it so we can easily take it apart … 2 inches thick, making sure they are as even as possible and have no air pockets. As the walls get taller, we keep adding sand on top of the second sheet of plastic. The sand supports the …
Type: Blog
… that go by the common name of "milkweed" are the food that these butterflies need. Milkweed is both a food source and a host plant on which the monarch butterflies lay their eggs. Monarchs … the underside of the milkweed foliage. After hatching, the larvae consume the foliage, which is high in cardiac glycosides—a poison that interferes with the heart functioning of vertebrates … (Anacardiaceae) and contain similar biologically active compounds. My daughter and I can’t get enough mango in our diet, but both break out in poison ivy rashes if we touch poison ivy …
Type: Blog
… It’s OK to have a favorite. Phillip Douglas, the Garden’s new curator of woody plants, is not shy about listing his top picks. Spending his first summer in Glencoe, Douglas is … the development of the oak and willow collections, and a review of all such plants already on-site. Douglas will also be helping to organize trips to collect plants in the wild with Andrew … Glencoe have been both overwhelming and energizing. “I like the variety of the things that I get to do, and I’m excited to help develop the collections and to add to the Garden,” he said. …
Type: Blog
… The Chicago Botanic Garden is on #TitanWatch. That’s right: if you visit the Garden’s Semitropical Greenhouse, you will see … 2 a.m. so visitors can experience the corpse flower bloom up close (last Garden entry will be 1 a.m.). Watch the live corpse flower webcam , check the blog ( subscribe today ), and follow the Garden on Facebook  and #CBGSprout  on Twitter  to get the latest information. Corpse flowers are BIG. In their natural habitats, they can reach 10 …
Type: Blog
… Seeing bulbs coming up all around me inspires lots of questions. I want to understand how this is possible and I want to test their strength. So I spent a few weeks playing around with this … and planted them in a pot. I covered them with a generous amount of potting soil (about a 1/2-inch layer) and I tamped the soil down gently so that it would be compressed—like the topsoil … soil is light and there are a lot of wheat plants, so they continue to lift the soil. Day 6: “Get off me, soil! – Umph!” Day 7: Phew! That was so much fun, I tried the same thing with a bunch …
Type: Blog
… working in connection with the Garden’s educational programs and activities. The Garden is required by Title IX and the regulations of the federal agencies that provide funding to its … or by calling the Garden’s anonymous hotline at (844) 764-7270 or chicagobotanic.ethicspoint.com , which may be done anonymously. Anyone who experiences such conduct is strongly encouraged … or by calling the Garden’s anonymous hotline at (844) 764-7270 or chicagobotanic.ethicspoint.com . Aida Z. Giglio, vice president of Human Resources Chicago Botanic Garden Human Resources – …
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… documentation at the Chicago Botanic Garden, it’s my job to notice plants. You’d think I’d get tired of it. Nope. Nature never disappoints. Even on the coldest, iciest days (looking at … to give way to positive emotions such as compassion and gratitude, the study finds. Winter is the time to cultivate awe. It’s a season in which hidden beauty is revealed—as long as you keep your eyes open. A coworker recently told me, for instance, that …
Type: Blog
… Bonsai Collection The Chicago Botanic Garden bonsai collection is one of the largest and most diverse collections in the country. Our nearly 300 trees and 160 … of trees for our visitors in two display courtyards from mid-April to October. The collection is comprised primarily of donations, including 19 trees imported from Japan and donated by bonsai … North American tree species and containers produced by North American potters. Our 600- to 1,000-year-old limber pine tree ( Pinus flexilis ), which was collected in the Rocky Mountains, …
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… There is a Native American myth that is believed to have originated with the Onondaga tribe of the … snorkel-like nose. A spiny soft shell The western painted turtle  Where do these turtles get their names? The map turtle gets its name from the pattern along the underside of the shell … anyone or anything that gets too close. Turtles have very sharp-edged mouthparts and once they get hold of something, they don’t let go. Many a dog has lost a piece of its nose when getting …
Type: Blog
… Mixed media Location: Joutras Gallery, Regenstein Center Artist statement: A Summer Journey is an installation that captures fragments of the landscape we inhabit. The work is an attempt to imagine a time when prairie land occupied two-thirds of the midwestern … Medium: Backlit digital print, transparencies Location: Visitor Center Artist statement: How is nature’s palette composed? Is there more to the colors we perceive in nature? The scientific …
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