… adaptation of the iris flower. The name Iris was taken from the Greek goddess of the rainbow to symbolize the many colors of this flower. …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… adaptation of the iris flower. The name Iris was taken from the Greek goddess of the rainbow to symbolize the many colors of this flower. …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… How to relax in nature, even when you can’t get away? Daydream, according to the American Heart Association. Start a bucket list. Even just the thought of escaping into … So we asked some of them: What plant would you most like to see in the wild? The common thread is that there is no common thread. These are not your garden-variety plant lovers. These are …
Type: Blog
… Did you have a flashback to science class when you saw Spike, the titan arum? I sure did. With Spike’s frilly spathe removed, Tim Pollak and Dr. Shannon Still had a rare opportunity to show the crowd the titan arum’s beautiful and astonishing inner plant parts. At my … basics about male and female flowers. And then they started talking pollen. Flashback: What is pollen? Tiny squiggles of pollen emerge from the male flowers about three days after Spike’s …
Type: Blog
… The Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Garden is the place to explore small-space gardening. Seven Basil Types Planted at the Regenstein … different basil varieties, laid out in a pinwheel design, and all grown from seed. It’s enough to make a gardener’s—or a foodie’s—head spin with plans for dinner…and for your own herb garden. …
Type: Blog
… the Chicago Botanic Garden has been tracking the recent rains. We know many of you are anxious to get planting done—it is spring, right? But we encourage caution and patience. If it squishes, wait. Working with wet soil and turf damages it. Here are tips to help gardeners navigate Chicago’s spring: Wait until the soil dries out to get back in your …
Type: Blog
… Pondering the Prairie Series Life in the prairie in the middle of winter is fairly uneventful; at least for humans who focus primarily on life above ground. Perhaps now is a good time to reflect on the diversity of life in a prairie below ground. All one has to do is drive across the Midwest and view the unending and, to many, boring, miles of corn and …
Type: Blog
… a question we heard a lot from Spike’s visitors this past weekend. The titan arum, native to the rainforests of the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, was first “discovered” by Italian … August 6, 1878, he first observed the leaves and fruits of a plant (interestingly, August 6 is the date we put Spike on public view!) . Several weeks later, Beccari saw a flowering plant for the first time. He sent a few tubers and seeds to Florence, Italy, but the tubers all perished; a few seeds, however, eventually germinated. One …
Type: Blog
… gentian. Talk about taking your breath away! It seems that a brilliantly colored flower is necessary to attract pollinators to a plant of such short stature that chooses to bloom at a time when its grassland habitat has …
Type: Blog
… It’s time for a visit to the Dixon Prairie to savor late spring flowers and the pollinators visiting these plants. A standout plant, looking almost like a small shrub, is white wild indigo (Baptisia alba). This is the white-flowered cousin to blue wild indigo …
Type: Blog
