… on the mushroom They should look like mushrooms you want to eat This portobello mushroom is good for making spore prints. This shiitake mushroom may be a little old—notice the brown … were placed on black paper. They will be covered with a bowl and then left overnight. In the morning, carefully lift your bowl and the individual mushrooms and see what you get. If … gills are not as straight and rigid as portobello gills, so you’ll get less gill definition in the print and a more wavy, swirling print. If your mushrooms are too wet, or are starting to …
Type: Blog
… How much do I put down? When’s the best time to mulch? How often do I need to amend the mulch? Is mulch the best weed barrier? Great questions about a basic garden element. Fall is the best … answer to that one is, well…have you noticed that weeds will grow quite well from the seams in the sidewalk? Or from the smallest cracks in the driveway? Or apparently straight out of bare concrete along the expressway? So, seeing …
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… There’s nothing quite like a fresh start to the new year. For gardeners, this is a great time to set goals and to think through plans for the year. We asked our dedicated team … as possible. When I travel, I always try to pick up a book on the local plants that grow well in the area. Advice: Do not be afraid to kill plants. I actually encourage new gardeners to not be afraid to kill plants by telling them I have killed many more in a much more public setting. Once I killed a plant, it made me reflect on what I needed to do …
Type: Blog
… architect. The Chinese Garden of Perfect Brightness. Tie them together and the result is part of the intriguing 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 began construction, Rausch recalled, “I have never seen anything quite as bad as that site. Literally, it was burning.” He was referring to the trash, raw sewage, weeds, and abandoned …
Type: Blog
… like to pay tribute to someone special or mark a special occasion, they can dedicate a book in the library in the same way that they might dedicate a tree or a bench in other Garden areas.” Later that … then fill out a book dedication form, including copy for the bookplate. After the bookplate is printed and mounted, you’ll be notified that it has taken its place on the library shelves. …
Type: Blog
… characteristics, including blooms that are amazingly complex. Milkweeds are found mostly in open prairies and savannas and are known to most by their fruits, which are pod-like … milkweed (A. verticillata) , which often can be found at the very edge of highways where there is little competition or dry pastures and degraded prairies, and swamp milkweed (A. incarnata) , which is the only species we have that grows in marshes. You are not likely to see the other 11 species that occur in the Chicago area because …
Type: Blog
… A longtime favorite of staff and visitors alike, the zebra longwing ( Heliconius charitonius ) is native from South America to south Texas and Florida, and occasionally an immigrant can be … of Florida. One very interesting thing about these beauties is that they roost communally in groups of 25 to 30 butterflies. In the Butterflies & Blooms exhibition, they tend to use the same branch night after night and …
Type: Blog
… talks about guiding students away from their electronic devices and into the plant world. It is a pretty spring day. The sun shines through my office window, illuminating the old and worn … dressed students are shown sitting near a river, a specimen and an open floristic manual in each of their laps. Inspired, I stand up to look out my window at the plants in bloom in my campus view. I wonder if the present-day students walking past have seen them, …
Type: Blog
… the radicle through the seed coat of a sunflower seed Although it may not look like it, spring is on its way, which means it’s time to start prepping for the anticipated spring planting … level is right there with them. I am frequently asked, “what kinds of activities do you do in the early spring to engage participants in horticultural therapy?” I turn to garden prep activities for both engaging and therapeutic …
Type: Blog
… As an active leader in international research collaborations, the Chicago Botanic Garden is participating in an initiative to set the stage for new partnerships. Patrick Herendeen, Ph.D. , senior …
Type: Blog
