We’ve officially reached planting season, and it is now safe to put in warm-season flowering annuals, vines, herbs, and vegetables. Horticulturists at the Chicago Botanic Garden do recommend waiting until Memorial Day for cold-sensitive plants such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and squash. Happy planting!
Summer plantings await in the production greenhouses.
Looking for a challenge? Try these techniques from our blog and the Smart Gardener:
Get the best performance from your plants with these tips from the Garden’s Plant Information Service:
Pinch back one-third of new growth to encourage stocky habit (except vines).
Be sure newly purchased annuals have been hardened off properly before planting them outside. That means moving plants outdoors for a portion of the day to gradually introduce them to the direct sunlight, dry air, and cold nights.
Avoid fertilizing newly planted annuals for two weeks.
Continue to plant new perennials, ornamental grasses, and roses in containers. If plant roots are root-bound (encircling the pot), make four cuts into the bottom of the root ball with a sharp tool, and flare the sections outward when planting.
Stake tall perennials before they reach 6 inches. Begin to regularly pinch back fall-blooming perennials such as chrysanthemums, asters, and tall sedums. Pinch once a week until the middle of July. This promotes stocky growth.
Continue to direct the growth of perennial vines on their supports. Climbing roses should be encouraged to develop lateral, flower-bearing canes.
Let spring bulb foliage yellow and wither before removing it. The leaves manufacture food that is stored in the bulb for next year’s growth. Even braiding the foliage of daffodils can reduce the food production of the leaves.
We’re not afraid to geek out on all things eco-friendly (looking at you, backyard chickens and organic leafy greens), but World Environment Day gives us an excuse to devote a full day to greening the planet.
June 4 is your chance to meet Garden scientists and horticulturists, and get all your questions answered about roses, lawn care, composting, and more.
Join the global day of action—with people in more than 70 countries—in a daylong celebration of free events and activities (plenty for the kids) on Saturday, June 4, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the Chicago Botanic Garden (parking fees apply). World Environment Day is the United Nation’s principal vehicle for encouraging awareness and action for the environment.
Bonus points if you use the day to recycle, add a pollinator-friendly plant to your garden, or consider your ecological footprint by walking, biking, carpooling, or taking public transportation to the Garden (a trolley will be available from the Glencoe Metra station from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; fee applies). Post a picture of what you did for the planet: #CBGWED and #WED2016.
Bring questions for WGN-TV chief meteorologist and Garden board member Tom Skilling on climate change and more. Skilling will give his climate and weather update at 1:30 p.m in the Plant Science Center.
2. Go to the movies—on us.
Director Carey Lundin introduces her award-winning documentary, Jens Jensen The Living Green. Discussion follows the 10 a.m. film; preregistration required.
At 3 p.m., catch a screening of Shifting Sands: On the Path to Sustainability, a documentary on the Indiana Dunes.
3. Get the buzz on pollinators and bugs.
Learn how to raise bees from beekeepers, and talk to horticulturists about which insects are good for your garden.
4. Score a planet-friendly freebie
Pick up a free butterfly weed plant to grow in your garden to help attract monarch butterflies.
5. Sing, dance, talk up a scientist.
Get your groove on with live music at the Family Entertainment Stage and enjoy Family Drop-in Activities—but don’t forget to leave time for the kids to talk to Garden scientists about plant conservation.
6. Get fresh with us.
Windy City Harvest sells fresh, organic produce harvested from the Garden and its urban agriculture sites. While supplies last, pick up a free Costa Rican sweet pepper plant.
7. Be kind to the landfills.
Bring unused prescription medicines for a “medication take-back” sponsored by NorthShore University HealthSystem.
Recycle plastic plant pots, and bring vases for re-purposing by Random Acts of Flowers, which delivers flower arrangements to people with health challenges.
Sustainable eating
10. Think farmers’ markets
Chef Cleetus Friedman of Caffè Baci shows you how to cook with seasonal, organic, and locally grown produce from the Garden’s Windy City Harvest program.
This weekend, the Butterflies & Blooms exhibition opens for its fifth season.
Early in the year we need to place our chrysalis orders with our suppliers for the season. This was the first time I had placed the order, so it was fun to look through the lists—reviewing what had done well, and adding some that we haven’t had. A field trip to the butterfly exhibition at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum gave us a few new ideas to add to the list. Butterflies are so colorful, and their varied patterns make them a joy to watch and photograph!
Snow peacock (Anartia jatrophae)
Painted lady (Vanessa cardui)
Gulf fritillary (Agraulis vanillae)
Our first shipment of pupae has just arrived. It includes North American species gulf fritillary, painted lady, and white peacock—see them at Butterflies & Blooms.
Most weeks we receive approximately 200 pupae, which are mounted on dowels in the warmth of the exhibition’s pupa room. Visitors thrill at seeing the butterflies and moths emerge from the pupae (or cocoons for the moths). Some emerge relatively quickly while others take longer.
The pupae are all ordered through butterfly suppliers; none of them are collected in the wild. The suppliers receive shipments often from all over the world from the “butterfly ranchers” who specialize in raising butterfly pupae and moth cocoons. They are shipped overnight to us in that state, so all the butterflies can emerge on site.
Get a ten-punch pass for Butterflies & Blooms and the Model Railroad Garden and plan a trip with friends! Passes are available at the exhibition kiosks.
Butterfly species are seasonal—the chrysalides for a species are not available year-round. Our supplier ships us a variety of pupae each week based on what we have requested, but also based on what is available at that time. Some butterflies are more consistently available during the months our exhibition is open, such as the popular blue morpho (Morpho peleides) and giant owl (Caligo memnon). Others may come and go, which is a perfect reason to come to see Butterflies & Blooms more than once during the summer!
Here is a sneak peek at more of the butterflies and moths gracing the exhibition this season:
As proud gardeners, we are thrilled to announce the arrival of flower names as a fresh trend on the best baby name lists.
While Lily, Rose, and Daisy have been perennial list favorites, Violet has just cracked the top five on Nameberry.
What’s behind the trend? Celebrities, for starters. When Gwyneth named baby Apple a dozen years ago, some scratched their heads. Fast forward to 2012, and Blue Ivy Carter (Beyoncé’s first) sounded just right.
Petunia sp.
Media has played a role, too. Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling surely knew her flowers: Harry’s mother was named Lily and his aunt, Petunia—and support characters that pop up are named Pansy, Lavender, and Poppy. And then there was Downton Abbey, with its worldwide audience that sighed with happiness when Lady Edith named the baby Marigold.
Speaking of England, behind today’s trend is an even earlier, Victorian-era trend rooted in the language of flowers. This is a topic near and dear to the Garden’s heart, as an amazing gift of 400 books related to the Language of Flowers was donated to the Lenhardt Library in 2015.
The new exhibition at the Lenhardt Library, Language of Flowers: Floral Art and Poetry, is a great opportunity to examine some of the rarest of those volumes—we’re especially enamored of the 1852 Lexicon of Ladies’ Names, with their Floral Emblems. Modern books are out on one of the library tables for you to browse, too—and that’s where you’ll find these beautiful names for girls (and boys) and their language of flowers meanings.
Don’t like the idea of an associated flower meaning? You can always choose Flora, Fleur, or Blossom. Or just stick with Sweet Pea as a nickname, because, girl or boy, what baby isn’t a “delicate pleasure”?
Rocket (Eruca sativa) by Alvesgaspar [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons
What About the Boys?
Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus) meant “gallantry” and Rocket (Eruca sativa) connoted “rivalry” in the language of flowers, but names for boys are few in the world of blooms. Expand into the wider world of plants and a few more names emerge: Sage, Forest, Ash, Bay, Glen.
What other nature-related names for boys can you think of?
Read, play, earn prizes! Kids of all ages are welcome to participate in the Lenhardt Library’s summer reading program at the Chicago Botanic Garden. The Summer Nature Explorer: Reading and Activity Program begins on June 4 and runs through September 5.
With the program, you can encourage the joy of reading and literacy skills in your kids and help reluctant readers enjoy STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) activities to develop critical thinking skills.
Research has shown that reading 20 minutes per day (or 300 minutes per summer) reduces the “summer slide” and enables students to maintain their reading level during summer vacation.
Here’s how the program works:
Sign up at the Lenhardt Library and receive your Summer Nature Explore: Reading and Activity Log.
Here are a few books in the Lenhardt Library’s children’s corner to pique your interest. (Books with yellow dot are for younger readers, while those with blue star are for more advanced readers.)
Explore Honey Bees!
Blobaum, Cindy. Explore Honey Bees! White River Junction, VT: Nomad Press, 2015.
Amazing honey bees have been pollinating our world for thousands of years. With descriptions and activities, this book covers it all.
Call Number: QL568.A6B56 2015
Spring: A Pop-Up Book
Carter, David A. Spring: A Pop-Up Book. New York, NY: Abrams Appleseed, 2016.
A bright and colorful pop-up book of flowers, trees, birds, and bugs that delights!
Call number: QH81.C37 2016
From Apple Trees to Cider, Please!
Chernesky, Felicia Sanzari, and Julia Patton. From Apple Trees to Cider, Please! Chicago, Illinois: Albert Whitman & Company, 2015.
From apple varieties on their trees to the cider press, this family’s rhyming visit to an orchard is great fun to read.
Call number: PZ8.3.C42Fr 2015
When Green Becomes Tomatoes
Fogliano, Julie, and Julie Morstad. When Green Becomes Tomatoes. New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2016.
Poems for each season with lovely illustrations to accompany the journey.
Call number: PS3606.O4225A6 2016
Amazing Plant Powers: How Plants Fly, Fight, Hide, Hunt, & Change the World
Leedy, Loreen, and Andrew Schuerger. Amazing Plant Powers: How Plants Fly, Fight, Hide, Hunt, & Change the World. New York: Holiday House, 2015.
Spike E. Prickles, the superhero plant, teaches all about plant life in a whimsical way.
