June 2015 – My Chicago Botanic Garden

Insta-improved Photos!

Simplicity is critical in creating a striking Instagram photo. Here are some tips to help you reduce distractions and bring focus to your pictures.

Show us your reds, whites, and blues on Instagram June 29 through July 7! Go outside and snap a pic of any red, white, or blue flower or plant for a chance to be featured on our feed and website. Tag @chicagobotanic in your post and use #CBGcontest15.

The most important thing to keep in mind when photographing for Instagram, is that your photo will be viewed at a relatively small scale. Your composition needs to grab the viewers’ attention as they scroll through their feed. Nature is full of beautiful detail, intricate patterns, and delicate textures. However, keep in mind that once a picture is posted, the subtlety and tiny details of the subject matter may be lost.

Consider placing subject matter that has very small details in a context. A close-up of these penstemon flowers alone makes for a very chaotic image, but when the surrounding landscape is included, the flowers form a shape that mirrors the line of trees above.

PHOTO: Closeup of Penstemon. — Penstemon blooms make a chaotic closeup.

PHOTO: Penstemon in the landscape. — Framing the shot gives these blooms context.

The opposite is also true. Removing context by getting closer to your subject usually simplifies your composition. In the case, of these penstemon flowers, most phones will not focus close enough to capture just one.

PHOTO: Roses in dappled sunlight. — Dappled sunlight draws attention away from these blooms.

PHOTO: Roses photographed in even shade. — Even shade brings out the color of the roses.

Avoid dappled sunlight to allow viewers to focus their attention on your subject matter. Try finding shade if you are photographing on a sunny day, or take pictures during the morning and evening when the light is softer.

Choose a point of view for your subject where light falls on the subject but not the background. This will emphasize the shape of your subject and increase contrast between it and the background. Keep your eye out for this lighting situation at the edge of large shadows cast by buildings where tall flowers pop out into the light.

PHOTO: Echinacea with path in background. — The background in soft focus detracts from our highlighted subject.

PHOTO: Echinacea isolated on dark background. — Isolating the bloom makes this echinacea the star of the photo.

These two photos are of the same flower but taken from different perspectives. You can see the edge of the shadow cast by a building in the first photo. The second photo was taken after stepping to the right and facing toward the building.

Instagram is a great place to get and share ideas; don’t hesitate to experiment and try new things.

Most importantly, have fun!

Food for Thought: Celebrating the Vegetables of the 1890s

Think about this vegetable fact: In 1903, 544 varieties of cabbage were listed by seed houses across the United States. By 1983, just 28 of those varieties were represented in our national seed bank at the National Seed Storage Laboratory (now the National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation).

Hundreds of other varieties have disappeared—not only of cabbages, but also of lettuce and corn and tomatoes and too many other crops to list. And that, in a nutshell, is why it continues to be important to plant heirloom varieties.

Vintage Varieties,
Still in Vogue

Stunning color illustrations made vintage nursery catalogs hard to resist.

Heirlooms remind the Garden of our parent organization, the Chicago Horticultural Society, which was officially established in 1890.

What was growing in Chicago vegetable gardens that year? Two big and beautiful beds at the Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Garden honored the tried-and-true midwestern varieties that were the staples of our great- and great-great-grandparents. The cabbages beloved by the immigrants who flocked to the Midwest, like ‘Early Jersey Wakefield’ and ‘Mammoth Red Rock’. The beans that could be canned to sustain the family, like ‘Henderson’s Bush’. The root vegetables that could overwinter, like parsnip ‘Mammoth Sandwich Island’ and rutabaga ‘Laurentian’. And the onions and lovage and cutting celery that were the flavor enhancers of the day.

Horticulturist Lisa Hilgenberg tracked down the varieties by going to the source: the seed catalogs that nurserymen, farmers, and gardeners ordered from and depended on. In the Rare Book Collection of our Lenhardt Library, she pored over an 1891 Storr’s & Harrison catalog, a Burpee’s from 1901, and numerous Vaughan’s Seed Store catalogs. (Vaughan’s started on the East Coast, then became one of the leading Chicago seed houses.) Recognizing that some varieties from the turn of the twentieth century were still available today (‘Bull Nose’ pepper, ‘Philadelphia White Box’ radish, ‘Wapsipinicon Peach’ tomato), she sought out those seeds from sources like Seed Savers Exchange, the D. Landreth Seed Company, and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

As seedlings arrived at the Fruit & Vegetable Garden from the production nursery, Lisa planted them in a classic bed layout inspired by the vegetable gardens at Monticello: 4- by 6-foot beds (easy to harvest from either side) separated by mulched paths made with wood chips that would have been straw in earlier centuries. As one crop is harvested, the next crop is planted—a nod to the constant production that was a matter of survival for our forefathers and foremothers.

PHOTO: Early Jersey Wakefield cabbage. — Early Jersey Wakefield cabbage

PHOTO: Mammoth Red Rock cabbage. — Mammoth Red Rock cabbage

PHOTO: A view of the heirloom seed beds in the Fruit & Vegetable Garden. — As they fill in, the beds create a strikingly beautiful mosaic of color, of texture, and history.

Heirloom fruits and vegetables are more than interesting food ingredients—they represent the voices of each generation informing the next. Think about that as you plan to grow heirloom varieties in your own vegetable garden this year.

Summer Comes to the Dwarf Conifer Garden

Early summer in the Dwarf Conifer Garden is all about the new growth. Everything is bursting forth with fresh new growth in vivid shades of green, chartreuse, yellow…and blue!

PHOTO: Dwarf Conifer Garden in spring. — Layers of color draw you into hidden paths throughout the Dwarf Conifer Garden.

Many of the trees feature entirely unexpected colors. For most of the year, Spring Ghost blue spruce (Picea pungens ‘Spring Ghost’) looks like your average Colorado spruce. From early spring through midsummer, however, the tips of every branch shine with the palest yellow—nearly white—new growth. Likewise, Taylor’s Sunburst lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta ‘Taylor’s Sunburst’) is a handsome green tree for most of the year—until spring, when radiant yellow new growth bursts forth, bringing a welcome dose of sunshine to the garden.

PHOTO: Picea pungens 'Spring Ghost'. — *Picea pungens* ‘Spring Ghost’

PHOTO: Pinus contorta 'Taylor's Sunburst'. — *Pinus contorta* ‘Taylor’s Sunburst’

PHOTO: Pinus cembra 'Blue Mound'. — *Pinus cembra* ‘Blue Mound’

New needles aren’t the only attraction this time of year. Many conifers have cones that start out in surprising shades! Blue Mound Swiss stone pine (Pinus cembra ‘Blue Mound’) would be a beautiful plant in its own right, with its long, soft, blue-green needles. But when you throw in dusky purple cones, you get a plant that is truly a gem. As the cones age, they’ll slowly turn into the more typical brown of a ripe cone, but right now, they’re as pretty as any flower.

Red can be a difficult color to find in conifers, but Acrocona spruce (Picea abies ‘Acrocona’) has cones that start out a vivid ruby red and slowly fade to a soft tan. The cones start out upward-facing, but slowly begin to droop as they age.

PHOTO: Picea abies 'Acrocona'. — *Picea abies* ‘Acrocona’ has cones that start ruby red, and slowly fade to tan.

PHOTO: Abies koreana 'Silver Show'. — *Abies koreana* ‘Silver Show’

Another unique plant is Silver Show dwarf Korean fir (Abies koreana ‘Silver Show’). Unlike other conifers, the firs (Abies sp.) have cones that always face upward. ‘Silver Show’ is beautiful any time of the year, but its purple upward-facing cones really make it special in spring. The cones start out small and green, but as you can see in this picture, they begin to turn purple as they grow until you’re left with dozens of dark purple cones set against perfectly tiered, silvery green foliage. There really is nothing else like it in the Garden.

PHOTO: Male cones on Pinus leucodermis. — Male cones on *Pinus leucodermis*

On most conifers, it’s the female cones that are most showy and most often noticed, but on Bosnian pine (Pinus leucodermis), it’s the male (pollen-bearing) cones that steal the show. Arranged in groups at the end of every branch, they light up the tree like little Christmas lights. Even on a gloomy day, the bright orangey-tan color stands out against some of the deepest green needles in the garden.

All of these colors are a seasonal show that is best appreciated before things start to heat up for the summer, so now is your best time to come see them!

Summer Infographic

What does June 21 mean to plants? Day length, temperature, sunlight, and water trigger all sorts of behavior in the world of plants…

Another Outstanding Year for the Chicago Botanic Garden

Halfway through its ten-year strategic plan, “Keep Growing,” the Chicago Botanic Garden has never been stronger. Since the plan was launched in early 2010, the Garden’s science, education, urban agriculture, and horticultural therapy programs have grown significantly. Our wide array of programs, classes, and exhibitions—including the new Orchid Show—attract more visitors each year, and in 2014, more than a million visitors came to the Garden for the second year in a row. We have had five years of record-breaking fundraising and operating budget results. Last year was particularly important as we broke ground for a new nursery on the Kris Jarantoski Campus and finalized plans for the Regenstein Foundation Learning Campus; we broke ground for Learning Campus and its centerpiece, the Education Center, this past April.

Please take a few minutes to review the Garden’s strategic plan update for 2014, which includes our Annual Report and the wonderful new video of the year’s accomplishments below. On the strategic plan website, you will also find an array of supporting documentation, including operating plans for various Garden departments. In every way, the Garden’s achievements exemplify its mission: We cultivate the power of plants to sustain and enrich life.

Click here to view video on youtube.