… the expiration date for color and excitement at the Chicago Botanic Garden—and it shouldn’t be in your garden either. We asked Tim Pollak, outdoor floriculturist, and Cindy Baker, manager of … of color options for your garden. Phlox cultivars add shades of showy pink, lavender, or white in clusters of delicate-looking flowers. Their sweet fragrance will attract late-season … All species have long, arching branches that cascade outward but with pruning, the shape is variable. Beautyberry should be planted in rich soil and pruned in early spring but otherwise …
Type: Blog
… for science fair projects and sometimes wait until the last minute to do their experiments. We in the Education Department of the Chicago Botanic Garden are committed to helping make science … and teachers by offering some simple ideas for studying plants. A no-brainer botany project is testing germination of radish seeds in different conditions. Radish seeds are easy to acquire, inexpensive, large enough to see and …
Type: Blog
… Perhaps you noticed the spiderwort, with its striking royal blue flowers, in the Dixon Prairie as part of the perimeter walk of the Garden. Or did you say cow slobbers? Whatever you call it, Tradescantia ohiensis is just one of the prairie plants that has a unique story to tell. Tradescantia ohiensis , better known to most as spiderwort, blooms in late spring in moist prairies. Its brilliant, royal blue flowers composed of three petals …
Type: Blog
… Leo Melecio joined the Horticulture department as a seasonal employee in 1980. He grew up on a farm near Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico, where he learned how to operate … Grounds supervisor. Melecio supervises four regular employees and 43 seasonal employees, and is responsible for general grounds maintenance, major event support (set up and tear down), and … landscape waste program. He is an expert equipment operator and trains staff and volunteers in safety and equipment operation. Melecio also teaches for the Joseph Regenstein, Jr. School of …
Type: Staff bio
… As a docent at that Show, I was eager to show off the Garden’s vanilla plant (located in the Tropical Greenhouse next to the banana trees), because I knew that may visitors didn’t know that they had an orchid in their spice cabinet. Currently, I am in the second year of my research of the vanilla orchid. Vanilla is an exciting plant to study because it grows as a vine with two different types of roots. These …
Type: Blog
… the Forest Preserves of Cook County, including a stint at the Garden. The Conservation Corps is a paid summer internship that gives young people hands-on conservation and environmental … worked to clear and trim overgrown bushes, install new plantings, and remove invasive plants. In addition to their work at the Garden, Corps members worked at Harms Woods near Glenview and … — Aaron Ivsin, 16, Chicago “I want to be an environmental biologist. This will help me later in life because everybody knows each other in the field." —Ushus Hermanson, 17, Chicago The …
Type: Blog
… Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking at a symposium on plant exploration that was held in Des Moines, Iowa. The audience was enthralled following the plant-collecting exploits of such … focused on plant collecting a tad closer to home—not as exotic perhaps, but still crucial in support of my research as the Chicago Botanic Garden’s plant breeder. So let’s go seek out the elusive wild phlox. Phlox is predominantly a North American genus (one species sneaks into Siberia) best known for its …
Type: Blog
… Looking for a reason to be glad for the cold weather in winter’s stretch? Consider the needs of fruit trees. Fruit trees need to spend a certain amount of time during their dormant winter period at cool temperatures in order to satisfy their chill requirement. Simply defined, the accumulation of chill units (CU) is a cumulative measure of the number of hours trees spend between 32 and 45 degrees Fahrenheit. …
Type: Blog
… The secret is out; visitors to the Chicago Botanic Garden have unprecedented access to plant information, … of interest, and botanic details on more than 10,000 plants into an application that sits in the palm of your hand. How did they do it, and what keeps the wheels turning? The ability to access this information in real time during a Garden visit is what makes the app so special, according to Boyce …
Type: Blog
… What’s the first plant you ever loved? In the past two years since I co-founded Plant Love Stories, people have told me their stories. I … you remember your grandma’s hydrangeas, neighborhood trees you climbed as a child, or a plant in a habitat far from home that stoked your curiosity about the natural world. Maybe it’s the … These are all examples of stories I’ve heard through Plant Love Stories. Plant Love Stories is a project dedicated to collecting and sharing stories about the plants that affect our lives. …
Type: Blog
