… garden because they provide both structure and color at a time when little else is blooming in the shade. The leaves emerge in a layered whorl, giving the plants a pagoda-like structure. We’re also moving into Asiatic lily season with the first of those beginning to bloom in bold shades of pink, red, yellow, and orange. Lilium ‘Nepera’ is a vibrant orange martagon …
Type: Blog
… Putting roses to sleep for winter In early November, many of the roses that bloom twice per year (called remontant, or repeat-blooming) were still putting on quite a show in the Krasberg Rose Garden. Even that late in the season, the garden looked exceptionally lush—canes were tall, bloom was heavy, and …
Type: Blog
… Many of our scientists and horticulturists work in the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Conservation Science Center. Talking to our scientists, … air, where they swing along like Spider-Man! Spiders have been found as high as 10,000 feet in the air and 200 miles out to sea. 2. Spiders can fish. TRUE. There's a group called fishing … binoculars) up front so they can focus on moving prey. 5. Spiders have stingers, like Shelob in The Lord of the Rings . FALSE. Spiders inject their prey with venom through fangs at the end …
Type: Blog
… The plant collections of the Chicago Botanic Garden have a new place to show off in a “theater” designed just for them in the Helen and Richard Thomas English Walled Garden . Plant theater is a traditional English … Sherwood, who oversees the English Walled Garden. Plant theaters have long been popular in Great Britain as a way to organize and present pots of flowering annuals, perennials, and …
Type: Blog
… with digestion, insomnia, and the common cold. Its fragrant white flowers with a yellow disk in the center make a great addition to your home garden. Gardenia Nothing quite compares to the … aromatic gardenia plant. Native to southeast Asia, gardenia is a large shrub or small tree in the Rubiaceae family with large, white, fragrant flowers produced at the ends of branches … back when young couples wore boutonnières and corsages when going out on dates. Keep gardenia in a sun-filled window for your very own oasis of calm and relaxation. Lavender Lavender has …
Type: Blog
… may not know about them. For one thing, there are several wild species of Rudbeckia growing in the region and several cultivars with bigger and/or fancier flowers that have been developed … The inflorescence of black-eyed Susans is a group of flowers held closely packed together in a head. The dark center of the head, when dissected, is composed of hundreds of tiny … this is hard to get your head around, since the entire heads of many tiny flowers are arranged in a way that looks like a single flower, but if you break a head apart and look closely with a …
Type: Blog
… sprout head? This DIY project connects young kids to plants and the magic of sprouting seeds. In camps and youth classes at the Chicago Botanic Garden, we encourage little ones to get their … is a soil amendment that can be purchased at a garden supply store. It expands when soaked in water and stays moist, so it is ideal for this project. You can substitute regular soil or … stocking. Make a face. You can draw a nose or form a protruding nose by pinching a small ball in the middle of the face and secure with a rubber band. Draw the eyes and mouth with a permanent …
Type: Blog
… various wildlife and, at the Garden, you can find examples of this everywhere. The milkweed in the Dixon Prairie is a favorite meal of the monarch butterfly. In the Bernice E. Lavin Plant Evaluation Garden, goldfinches feed on Agastache and other perennial seeds. Crabapple and dogwood trees set fruit that many birds like to feed on in late fall and winter. In addition to plants providing food to all kinds of wildlife like …
Type: Blog
… can be used on hard-boiled or fancy blown-out eggs. Most of what you need is probably already in your own kitchen and pantry. The tools you’ll need to create your own egg dyes Step 1: … which helps to set the color. Below are the dozen dyes and “recipes” that we tried, listed in order of color intensity (after about 20 minutes of steeping). Beets = Purple 1 large beet … times. The longer you steep, the deeper the color—steeping eggs can even be left overnight in the refrigerator. Hardboil eggs or blow them out. Chopped and simmered fresh carrot tops …
Type: Blog
… Garden get creative this time of year, sharing harvests of fruit, nuts, herbs, and more in creative—and delicious—style. We asked our staff to share their handmade gift ideas, and their … to six eggs she gets every day and handing them out as precious gifts, perfectly presented in a green berry box softened with raffia. Not just for Easter: Plymouth Barred Rock hen eggs are … director of living plant documentation, gets the most out of the fruiting vines and brambles in his suburban yard, creating beautiful, jewel-toned vodkas (black currant, blackberry, Michigan …
Type: Blog
