… Yesterday we moved our first titan arum ( Amorphophallus titanum ), “Spike,” to the Semitropical Greenhouse. Now we are all watching and waiting for Spike to bloom—a dream of the Chicago Botanic Garden for 12 years! Finally, in the next ten days or so, … days, a barely noticeable inch, and other days, a remarkable 4 or 5 inches. Below the soil is a giant corm, which is a type of underground tuber or bulb (some can weight up to 200 pounds). …
Type: Blog
… One of the top questions we have been getting about Spike the titan arum is “How do you know how much water to give it?” The care and feeding that we have given Spike and its fellow titan arums—our … Titan arums require well-maintained conditions of high humidity and high temperature—similar to their natural conditions in the tropical rainforests of Sumatra. Therefore, the cultivation is …
Type: Blog
… & Blooms exhibition features a huge variety of live butterflies. One interesting example is Caligo atreus, also known as the yellow-edged owl, or our favorite: the magnificent owl. … (You will typically see the eyespots when the butterflies’ wings are closed.) This is thought to help them ward off predators. Caligo translates to “darkness,” which corresponds to the fact that they prefer to fly in the early morning before …
Type: Blog
… A striking century plant is putting on a show in the final stages of its life—it’s blooming for the first and only time in … at the Chicago Botanic Garden, Agave ocahui is known as the century plant because people used to think it flowered only once every 100 years. A more accurate estimate is that it blooms once after 25 to 30 years of growth. The Garden’s century plant came from The Huntington Library, Art …
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 found as far north as Nebraska! … 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 …
Type: Blog
… This is the story of a road trip I took with some corpse flowers, the rock stars of the plant world. … at bloom time—a hybrid of week-old gym socks and a rotting mouse that you just can’t seem to find in your kitchen. The Garden began collecting titan arums, or corpse flowers, in 2003. There’s a worldwide conservation effort to preserve the species, as it is considered “vulnerable”—unless the circumstances threatening …
Type: Blog
… which monarchs lay their eggs, and its caterpillars, also called larvae, eat milkweed leaves to grow. But these plants have other interesting 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 structures (follicles) that split open to release … 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) , …
Type: Blog
… In this hands-on class, local food blogger and cookbook author Emily Paster will teach you how to make strawberry balsamic jam, a surprisingly delicious take on this classic preserve. The …
Type: Item Detail
… demonstrate various methods for painting realistic looking leaves. The class will discuss how to perfectly coordinate lush leaves with white, pale flowers. Prerequisites: Botanical Drawing 1 …
Type: Item Detail
… rock instruments. Their signature summer show features classic rock music from the late ’60s to current hits, all mashed with music by the great composers: Bach, Beethoven, Handel, Mozart, …
Type: Event for Calendar
