august – My Chicago Botanic Garden

Beer From Here

Begyle Brewing, Chef Cleetus Friedman and the Garden are launching a series of seasonal, small-batch saisons—Change of Saisons. The beer captures the best flavors of the season.

Chef Cleetus Friedman has had a long relationship with the Chicago Botanic Garden. You may know him as the executive chef of Fountainhead, the Bar on Buena, and the Northman, soon to open in Chicago. Perhaps you have enjoyed his appearances at the Garden Chef Series, where he teaches visitors to prepare local, seasonal recipes at the open-air amphitheater of the Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Garden. If you are lucky, you have experienced one of our Farm Dinners over the past six years, where Chef Friedman dreams up memorable meals with local food and drink for guests to enjoy in a garden setting.

And now, that relationship has grown into something even more mouth-watering…

PHOTO: Cleetus Friedman of Fountainhead / The Bar on Buena. — Chef Cleetus Friedman of Fountainhead and the Bar on Buena!

Together with Begyle Brewing, a community-supported brewery in the Ravenswood neighborhood of Chicago, Chef Friedman and the Garden are launching a series of seasonal, small-batch saisons—Change of Saisons. The beer will capture the best flavors of the season at the Garden, beginning with a strawberry rhubarb saison, sourced this spring. The team worked fast to bring this brew right back to the Garden for visitors to enjoy. The small batch of strawberry rhubarb saison will be followed by a berry-based saison and each will be available for only a limited time.

“It’s a versatile beer for everyone coming to the Garden,” said Chef Friedman.

Beer Rhubarb and Laura — On May 21, Laura Erickson, market manager of Windy City Harvest, harvested rhubarb from the Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Garden. Chef Friedman cooked it down to make a puree to use in the brew.

“Change of Saisons furthers our commitment to serve food and beverages that are sourced locally,” said Harriet Resnick, vice president of visitor experience and business development, “and you can’t get more local than our own backyard.”

What is a Saison?—The Garden’s new beer is a saison, a lighter type of ale originating from a French-speaking region of Belgium. It typically contains fruit and spice notes. Farmers brewed this ale during the cooler months and stored it until the following summer, where it was given to seasonal workers, or “saisonniers.”

Change of Saisons is available on tap (while supplies last) at the Garden Grille on the Garden View Café deck. You may also sip saison at Autumn Brews on Thursday, October 8, 2015.

Late summer comes to the Bulb Garden

One should never assume that this late in the season we are done with blooming bulbs—that simply isn’t the case. There are still plenty of bulbs blooming their hearts out! Summer annual bulbs like dahlias, cannas, and begonias are still blooming like crazy, and several unusual perennial bulbs are just starting their show.

PHOTO: Bulb Garden path. — Annual bulbs such as *Dahlia* help carry the Graham Bulb Garden through the summer.

Lycoris have many common names—surprise lily, magic lily, naked ladies, and several more—which allude to the fact that these flowers spring forth from bare ground with no leaves in sight. (They leaf out in spring without blooming and then go dormant; blooms appear in fall as a single stalk appears from the bare ground where the bulb resides.) There are currently two species blooming in the Graham Bulb Garden. Lycoris chinensis has beautiful golden-yellow flowers, and Lycoris incarnata has pale pink flowers striped with magenta, giving it the common name of peppermint surprise lily.

PHOTO: Magic Lily (Lycoris chinensis) — Magic lily (*Lycoris chinensis*)

PHOTO: Peppermint surprise lily (Lycoris incarnata) — Peppermint surprise lily (*Lycoris incarnata*)

Autumn squill (Scilla numidica) is a rarely-seen relative of the spring blooming Siberian squill (Scilla siberica). It features soft pink wands of flowers that will gently reseed to form a colony.

PHOTO: Autumn squill (Scilla numidica). — Autumn squill (*Scilla numidica*)

Alstroemeria ‘Sweet Laura’ is a hardy relative of the ever-popular florist alstroemeria. The yellow-and-orange blooms begin in July and persist for weeks. Just like their cultivated relatives, these make excellent cut flowers.

PHOTO: Alstroemeria 'Sweet Laura'. — *Alstroemeria* ‘Sweet Laura’

The shadier parts of the Bulb Garden aren’t being left out this late in the season, either. Annual bulbs such as Begonia ‘Million Kisses Honeymoon’ and Caladium ‘Raspberry Moon’ help light up a dark area under the crabapples (Malus ‘Selkirk’). And containers spill over with a cascade of blooming bulb varieties.

PHOTO: Container garden featuring a mix of bulbs. — Bulbs even work in containers! This container in the Bulb Garden features a mix of annuals: *Scaevola aemula* ‘New Wonder’, *Lantana* ‘Little Lucky Red’ and *Helichrysum petiolare* ‘Limelight’ with a pair of smaller-scale bulbs, *Tulbaghia violacea* ‘Silver Lace’ and Oxalis adenophylla.

There is still a lot going on in the Bulb Garden, and there is still more to come!

Today’s Harvest: Berries

Berries abound in the Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Garden!

What can bramble fruits do for you? Blackberries, raspberries, loganberries, lingonberries, boysenberries, and well, a decidedly non-brambley blueberry are the topic of our latest Today’s Harvest veggiegraphic.

Exuberant Summer Evenings

The long summer days of August are a treasure in the Chicago area.

For some parents of toddlers and young children, however, the late afternoon can seem to stretch on endlessly. What is a mom or dad to do after a long day of work, when it is not quite bedtime, and the kids seem to have enough energy to run around the block several more times?

PHOTO: A smiling girl holds her completed Garden Bingo sheet and a fistful of candy. — An afternoon win of Garden Bingo is even sweeter with an evening picnic.

Come to Dancin’ Sprouts at the Chicago Botanic Garden! Every Wednesday in August, a different kid-friendly band strikes up the music on the Esplanade, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Children and their grown-up friends fill the grassy area with blankets, chairs, and high energy. Each group engages these young, enthusiastic audience members, and the children are dancing, singing, jumping, hopping, and smiling from ear to ear.

Against the backdrop of Smith Fountain and the Garden lakes, the sun sinks in the sky, and the children skip and dance until they’re just about ready for bed. The parents and caregivers can head home knowing they’ve spent a summer afternoon just as it should be spent!

There are still four weeks of concerts left this summer (here’s the schedule)! Grab a few friends and make it a Dancin’ Sprouts picnic party!

PHOTO: A dad dances with his daughter, who is amazed by some bubbles in the air. — The dancing is great here—the bubbles are the icing on the cake.

While you’re planning your Garden visit, don’t miss the Summer Family Fun Pack, which includes parking as well as admission to Butterflies & Blooms and the Model Railroad Garden for up to five people!

Jewel of the Forest

When you walk through natural wooded areas like McDonald Woods, you may find this plant:

PHOTO: Spotted jewelweed blooms and developing seed pod. — You can’t miss the orange flowers of this jewelweed, but look closer to find the seedpod hanging below and to the right of the third blossom.

Its scientific name is Impatiens capensis, and jewelweed has some interesting features that make it worth getting to know. Its common names, jewelweed and touch-me-not probably come from the characteristics of the flowers and seeds. The bright orange blossoms have a jewel-like quality and stand out against the green foliage.

PHOTO: Closeup of a ripe jewelweed seed pod. — The swollen seedpod on this plant looks ripe and ready to pop.

You might expect a plant called “touch-me-not” to be toxic or irritating to the skin. This is not the case. The name comes from a little seedpod surprise. When they are ripe, a slight disturbance will cause them to pop open and squirt their seeds out.

We have to assume that someone called it “touch-me-not” after touching a seedpod and having the seeds shoot at him. Maybe it seemed as if the plant was reacting negatively to his touch. Rather than a defense mechanism, shooting seeds is an effective dispersal strategy, as it sends the seeds away from the mother plant where they might have a better chance to sprout and grow.

PHOTO: Spotted jewelweed (nonblooming) shows the leaf shape and seed pods. — Viewed from above, the characteristic oval leaf shape and a seedpod growing from the center stem are evident.

Finding jewelweed in the forest right now may be a little tricky because there aren’t many flowers remaining. Get to know the leaves—they are oval-shaped with a gently pointed tip, and have slightly toothed edges. The stem is thick and a translucent light green.

Jewelweed has some other interesting qualities. Native Americans squeezed the juice from the stem of jewelweed and applied it to poison ivy rashes and other skin ailments for a very soothing treatment. It is ironic that “touch-me-not” is a cure for “leaves of three—let it be,” don’t you think?

Folklore tells us that wherever you find a toxic plant, you will find its remedy growing nearby. It’s a nice idea, but it may not be true. That said, you will probably find poison ivy growing near jewelweed, so use caution and be careful not to touch when you are searching for this plant.