… native seeds for the national Seeds of Success (SOS) program this field season. The Garden is an active partner in SOS, led by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, to collect seeds for conservation, research, and ecosystem restoration. Under contracts with … participate in the Seeds of Success program. The goal is to collect 80,000 viable seeds per site, but the devastating heat and drought in the west has made the job especially challenging. …
Type: Blog
… of music from Northwestern University under Elizabeth Cifani and Edward Druzinsky, Joy wanted to create her own style of music on the kong hou, or double strung Chinese harp. In 23 years, Joy …
Type: Event for Calendar
… Chabaud, a well-known gardener in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Chabaud passed the specimen on to a taxonomist who named the species in his honor. Treasured as a local medicinal plant, …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… Even as the leaves start to turn in shades of scarlet and gold, we are thinking ahead to nature’s other big show—spring color. This year, the annual Woman’s Board Fall Bulb Sale is online only. You’ll be able to shop at your leisure for hundreds of varieties of bulbs …
Type: Blog
… heard in late summer and fall as chickadees gather in family groups and small feeding flocks to prepare for the winter. The chickadee’s song—translated as “Hey, sweetie,” (though you can’t often hear the third syllable)—is reserved for late winter, spring, and summer, when the bird is courting and nesting. Nothing brightens a mid-February day more than when a chickadee sings because to those who hear it, the song signals spring’s arrival. Because of its curiosity and propensity …
Type: Blog
… After a year of extraordinary challenges, we are looking forward to all that summer 2021 has to offer in the Lavin Plant Evaluation Garden. Here at the Chicago … ( Eupatorium perfoliatum ‘Polished Brass’), which at 68 inches tall and 96 inches wide, is one of the most pollinator-friendly plants ever. Eupatorium perfoliatum Astrantia Echinacea … plant is regularly monitored for its adaptability to the environmental conditions of the trial site, disease and pest problems, and the ornamental value of the flowers, foliage, and habits. …
Type: Blog
… The first moth to emerge in the Butterflies & Blooms exhibition is the Atlas moth ( Attacus atlas) , which is native to Southeast Asia. The Atlas moth lives for one to two weeks, so its main purpose after emerging …
Type: Blog
… like something a scarecrow might wear. His bushy black eyebrows dance when he talks, bringing to mind the woolly bear caterpillars abundant in the fall. A playfulness—tinged with the … smile on another jack-o-lantern gives a mixed message. Obenchain describes it as an “I’m-happy-to-see-you-because-I’m-going-to-eat you” look. “I get a lot of, ‘Wow! I could never do that!’” … the shape of the pumpkin has the idea. The pumpkin determines what you’re going to carve. How is it going to sit? Is it a “Bert” or an “Ernie”? (A Bert has a more elongated shape, while an …
Type: Blog
… An exotic, tall-dark-and-handsome visitor has returned to the Chicago Botanic Garden this spring. Its bold blooms draw pollinators in as well as Garden visitors. What is it, you ask? Some of the most unusual plants our Production Greenhouse team grow for our … that produces giant spikes of flowers—but not right away. Echium take two years of growth to become the epic plants you see throughout the Garden. You won’t find these Dr. Seussian plants …
Type: Blog
… 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
