… flower reflects onto the shadowed water below. Doctoral student Lynnaun Johnson wades over for a closer look. Habitat is shrinking for this reclusive orchid, and he is using a unique approach to better understand the species’ uncommon lifestyle. During March 2016 fieldwork in the Florida … deeper every day—even when it meant paddling his canoe within 10 feet of a sunstruck alligator to reach the widely dispersed plants. Each time he located an orchid, he looked past the plant …
Type: Blog
… In November, I had the unique opportunity to go to the Portland Japanese Garden for a week-long training session—and what a week it was! I …
Type: Blog
… horticulturists at the Chicago Botanic Garden transcend tradition on Valentine’s Day. Read on for thoughtful, unusual, and homemade floral gift ideas. Spouses can evoke their wedding day by … beautiful flowering branches from early-spring flowering shrubs, such as forsythia. Prune 2- to-3-foot lengths, put them in a container filled with water, and place them in a sunny location. … and serve double duty in the summer garden. Tim Pollak likes giving indoor blooming plants to friends and family, because they serve as a lasting reminder. Forsythia (Forsythia …
Type: Blog
… Thousands of visitors to the Orchid Show at the Chicago Botanic Garden have been delighted to see a special guest star at the Tropical Greenhouse: Alice the Amorphophallus is on display, … while the smaller berries are sterile. Spike and Stinky contributed all the pollen used for Alice’s pollination last September. About one-third of Alice’s female flowers received …
Type: Blog
… and where they go by building our own model insect. It was really easy—a fun and funny way to teach our kids about the different parts. You can build your own model insect at home, too. … explore and make more than one kind of insect. Coffee filters —Cut these each into six pieces for wings. You can see how to cut them from the photo of our completed insect below. Pipe cleaners —Cut these into 3-inch …
Type: Blog
… flower was all the rage. A language of flowers emerged. Books appeared that set the standard for flower meanings and guided the sender and the recipient in their floral dialogue. Victorians … of books about the subject, including many entitled The Language of Flowers , was donated to the Lenhardt Library. The gift of James Moretz, the retired director of the American Floral … these few photos show, there are books filled with intricate illustrations, books specific to one flower, handpainted books, pocket-sized books, and dictionaries. The oldest volume dates …
Type: Blog
… Terese Adamiec is the grower for outdoor floriculture in the Plant Production department. She focuses on growing and maintaining the annuals that are used in the display gardens for the spring, summer, and fall seasons. She also maintains the inventory of nonhardy plants … orders hundreds of varieties of seeds for seasonal displays, and delivers the finished plants to horticulturists throughout the year. Adamiec has been with the Garden since 2011, when she was …
Type: Staff bio
… There’s less mystery in the natural history of aquatic green algae and its relationship to land plants, thanks to research co-led by Chicago Botanic Garden scientist Norm Wickett , Ph.D., published this week … to make use of advanced DNA sequencing technologies in biodiversity research. “We have known for quite some time that all plants on land share a common ancestor with green algae, but there …
Type: Blog
… Production department's nursery supervisor. Many of the Garden's more unique and difficult-to-source plants are grown in the nursery. Raue started working at the Garden in 1986, as a … Following her internship, in the next seven years, Raue worked as a horticulturist for the Farwell Landscape Garden, Native Plant Garden, Graham Bulb Garden, and Aquatic Garden. She transferred to Plant Production as a grower for indoor floriculture in 1996 and then to the nursery as a …
Type: Staff bio
… To most people, the word “pollinator” is synonymous with the word “bee,” but only a fraction of … pollinators—bats, birds, beetles, moths, and more. As part of National Moth Week , we wanted to highlight our work on a very special group of moths: the Sphingidae, or hawkmoths, which … leaves, buds, and flowers. How does scent play a role in attracting hawkmoths? Do moths use it for pollination? Or do they use it to find host plants to lay their eggs? Or maybe both? Hawkmoth …
Type: Blog
