… which includes nursery and greenhouse operations. He works with a talented team of growers to produce a complex and diverse range of plants for the Garden's programs, collections, and displays. Clark has been with the Garden since 1979, … He started as a grower in the greenhouses, became plant propagator, and ultimately moved on to manage the department. He has been instrumental in the planning and implementation of the new …
Type: Staff bio
… two years since I co-founded Plant Love Stories, people have told me their stories. I love to hear them—and not just because I’m a plant conservation scientist. Maybe you remember your … that stoked your curiosity about the natural world. Maybe it’s the first houseplant you cared for, or the first one you kept alive. Maybe it’s the first native species you learned to identify, and it wasn’t until you knew its name that you started to really notice it. Maybe …
Type: Blog
… Shakespeare is the following: “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” You would have to read Hamlet to get the backstory, but one thing I know as an ecologist, is that we would be in a lot of … of dead plant material, and all those nutrients and minerals would be locked up—unavailable for other plants to use. Many of the shelf fungi differ from other fungi, not only because of …
Type: Blog
… some 12-inch-long soft strings of light-colored yarn put out by humans, she may snatch them to make her nest. A common breeding bird of open woodlands, natural spaces, gardens, and … Photo © Carol Freeman By May, Baltimore orioles have arrived in the eastern United States to set up breeding territories. To get her attention, the male hops around the female, spreads … lucky enough to see an oriole nest will most likely agree. It can take a week to ten days for the female to complete her nest. She’ll then lay three to seven pale eggs blotched with …
Type: Blog
… Spring is seed season—and a good time to think about gifting seeds to gardeners, friends, and green-thumbed moms (think Mother’s Day). Musing about how to share … water. Roll all of the mixture into balls; then let the balls dry on newspaper or waxed paper for two or three days. Don’t worry about smoothness—rustic-looking seed balls are as interesting …
Type: Blog
… and violets of the dominant fall asters, many of them blooming throughout October. Look for bottle and cream gentians in the Garden’s Dixon Prairie or elsewhere. Buried beneath the riot … 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
… as in life, patience is a virtue. Twelve years ago, the Garden embarked on a mission to bring a rock star of the plant world to the Chicago Botanic Garden. The titan arum ( Amorphophallus titanum ), also known as the … size, odd shape, and terrible stench (hence its common name, corpse flower). Plants bloom for a single day every seven to ten years, and it is nearly impossible to predict the day it will …
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 27 years. The succulent sends up a tall stalk of blossoms right … 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
… Pondering the Prairie Series Graminoid is a term created to encompass all of those grass-like plants with narrow leaves and barely noticeable flowers. Yes, grasses and grass look-alikes do have flowers! All plants need to reproduce and they do so primarily by producing flowers. Unfortunately, the graminoid has a … however, have their growing tissue at the base of the leaf and are, therefore, well suited for landscapes dominated by grazing animals (or lawn mowers). They can tolerate repeated clipping …
Type: Blog
… Tom Soulsby is the senior horticulturist for the Rose Garden, Heritage Garden, and Linden Allée. He is responsible for curating and maintaining a collection of more than 5,000 roses in one of the largest public … that included working as a child alongside his dad. His love of gardening carries over to his own home. Before pursuing his passion for public horticulture, Soulsby was a director at …
Type: Staff bio
