As Horticulturist Dave Cantwell demonstrates, winter is a great time to prune trees and shrubs. Follow his tips to make all the right cuts. Want to learn more? Tim Johnson, Director of Horticulture teaches “Pruning Principles” each March, before trees come out of dormancy. For more information on this and other classes, visit the Joseph Regenstein Jr. School at chicagobotanic.org/adult_education.
Category: Horticulture & Display Gardens
Learn more about the plants and gardens at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
Grow Microgreens and Sprouts at Home
Want a quick and easy way to get fresh healthy food even in winter? Benjamin Carroll shows us how to grow microgreens and sprouts at home.
Make a Cement Trough Container
English trough containers are stone-like garden containers you can make at home from common materials. Here, Hannah Rohn and Heather Sherwood show us how to make a garden container from Portland cement, peat moss, perlite and water. These troughs are great for shallow-rooted hardy perennials, dwarf alpines, herbs or annuals. Examples of these versatile troughs can be seen in the English Walled Garden and Heritage Garden.
Nancy Clifton teaches trough-making and other garden workshops through the Joseph Regenstein, Jr. School of the Chicago Botanic Garden. Look for her classes online and in the catalogs. For registration information, visit www.chicagobotanic.org/school.
Download detailed instructions on another technique for making English garden troughs here:
http://www.chicagobotanic.org/downloads/trough/cbg_trough.pdf.
Planting Pointsettia Spheres for Wonderland Express
Go behind the scenes to see what it takes to put together the 10,000-square-foot Wonderland Express exhibition. Heather Sherwood, Senior Horticulturist, plants a six-foot poinsettia sphere to be displayed in the Temperate Greenhouse during the exhibition.
Wonderland Express Holiday Wreaths
Many of the wreaths you see outside the Wonderland Express exhibition were designed by the Garden’s own horticulturists. We stopped by to watch them put together their wreaths for the display. See their completed wreaths as well as many wreaths designed by local florists and garden centers when the exhibition opens on November 27. To learn how to make your own, see our list of holiday decorating classes at chicagobotanic.org/school/holiday.