November 2017 – My Chicago Botanic Garden

Holiday Gift Guide 2017: 12 Curated Ideas

Now that the holidays are bearing down, we’ve put together some gift ideas for the nature lovers and others on your list, including the blooms-loving home mixologist (three words: cherry blossom elixir).

Bring your shopping list (or personal wish list; we won’t tell) to the cozy Chicago Botanic Garden Shop, where our offerings include handmade, inspired-by-nature gifts that you won’t find anywhere else in the area. Proceeds from your purchase help support the Garden’s mission.

Get your holiday shopping done early and then treat yourself to a walk at the Garden. Parking fees apply; members park for free (and get a 10 percent discount at the Garden Shop). Or shop online anytime.

For the home mixologist

These floral elixirs will transform champagne, spirits, and soda water into celebratory holiday cocktails and mocktails. Besides the cherry blossom elixir, other flavors include hibiscus and violet. Each elixir is all natural and handcrafted from real flowers.

Set of five 2-ounce bottles: $34.99
One 2-ounce bottle $9.99
One 8.5-ounce bottle: $19.99

For the holiday ornament collector

The new Chicago Botanic Garden holiday ornament features the 48-bell Theodore C. Butz Memorial Carillon, a lovely reminder of bells on a summer evening. This ornament, which has a silver palladium finish, also highlights the Garden’s elegant willow trees.

Custom carillon ornament: $19.99

For the host and hostess

This hand-painted collection from Tag is perfect for the host or hostess who appreciates the splash of color that a cardinal brings on a winter’s day. The Cardinal Collection includes mugs, a dessert dish, and platter, and is dishwasher and microwave safe.

Cardinal mugs: $14.99
Greenery dessert dish (not shown): $16.99
Cardinal platter: $39.99

For the art and nature lover

Nature lovers can celebrate the ephemeral grace of a gingko leaf and other reminders of the natural world with this handcrafted jewelry. Nature’s Creations uses natural items or impressions from nature to make each piece, which is finished with bronze and other patinas.

$39.99 and up
Single gingko leaf necklace: $119.99

For the person with fun ears

Each handmade stud in this gemstone earrings set is handpicked, so no two are alike. Instead, the JaxKelly studs complement each other as sisters, not twins—metaphor, anyone? The earrings are gold vermeil over sterling silver.

$29.99 per set
JaxKelly quartz earrings: $29.99

For the outdoors-y man

For the man who isn’t scared by winter weather, consider these classic accessories from Dorfman Pacific Co. The warm 3M thinsulate gloves and fleece-lined hats will come in handy on walks in bone-chilling weather.

$19.99 and up

For the photographer

Photography fans and garden lovers will be reminded of the beauty of the seasons with the Chicago Botanic Garden’s 2018 desktop calendar. Featured scenes include the vibrant colors of spring-blooming tulips and the elegance of the Malott Japanese Garden.

2018 Desktop calendar: $19.99

For the train fan

Who doesn’t love a vintage train? We do at the Garden, where we celebrate the holidays with the annual Wonderland Express train exhibition. This two-piece train ornament is crafted and hand painted in Poland.

Train ornaments (2-piece set): $75

For the reader

Anyone who is interested in the natural world and how we study it will enjoy Lab Girl, the memoir by Fulbright Award-winning geobiologist Hope Jahren. Looking for a boost to your cocktail party chitchat? Enjoy tidbits about the plants that led to the creation of the world’s great drinks in the New York Times bestseller The Drunken Botanist.

Prices vary. Browse books available online.

For the home cook

The bright pomegranates on this sturdy servingware will lend a festive flair to any gathering. The collection by Tag includes individual bowls and a serving bowl; all are dishwasher and microwave safe.

Small pomegranate bowl: $9.99
Pomegranate serving bowl: $69.99

For the homeowner

Davin and Susan Butterfield are the artists behind this unique, small-studio editions of fine handmade pottery in stoneware. The collection features tableware and pottery, with nature-inspired patterns. Butterfield pottery is food safe, and microwave and dishwasher safe.

Blue floral mug: $39.99
Blue floral basket: $149.99
Blue floral large vase: $199.99

For someone special

Inspire and delight your loved ones with year-round access to the Chicago Botanic Garden. Membership includes free parking 365 days of the year, and special discounts on classes and events, the Garden Shop’s merchandise, and more. Your gift membership is fully tax-deductible and directly supports the Garden’s mission.

Garden membership: $95 and up

The Gift That Keeps on Giving: Holiday Plants

Looking for a feel-good, beautiful, reasonably priced gift? Plants are all that and even on trend—see #plantsmakepeoplehappy; it’s an Instagram thing. Here’s a quick guide on which plants to buy—as a gift or for yourself. Make sure to get them to their destination safely by wrapping them head to toe at the store and getting them back indoors as soon as you can.

Holiday plants come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Take the beautiful but dreaded poinsettia. It’s beautiful because the red, cream, or sparkle-laden plants are dazzling. But it is also dreaded because the plant will drop its leaves in warm and dry air, cold drafts, or direct sunlight. There’s hope—and you need not be a horticulturist to nurture a holiday plant.

Christmas Cactus

Christmas Cactus
So much for common names—these colorful plants (Schlumbergera spp.) hail from Brazil’s rainforest. Place them in bright, indirect light. Water thoroughly, letting the soil dry a little between waterings.

Rosemary

Rosemary
Who doesn’t love a fragrant pot of rosemary, trimmed to look like a miniature spruce tree? Keep it moist but not sopping wet, and give it bright light or a sunny window. And snip some stems for your culinary adventures.

Orchid

Orchid
Forget to water? No problem. Overwatering orchids kills them faster than underwatering. Place them in a southern or eastern exposure and enjoy several months of bloom.

Poinsettia

Poinsettia
Give it a cool spot out of direct sunlight and keep the soil moist but not soggy. It’s tricky to keep poinsettias going until spring, but if you’re game, here’s how.

Amaryllis

Amaryllis
Breathtaking, beefy amaryllis blooms—trumpets of white, cream, red, pink, or multi-colors—put on a show for several weeks. Put the plant in a bright, sunny spot and water thoroughly, letting the soil dry a bit between waterings. As each flower fades, remove the flowering stalk. A bonus: you can get it to rebloom next year.

Cyclamen

Cyclamen
Often called “the poor man’s orchid,” cyclamen (SIKE-la-men) plants like it cool, preferring daytime temperatures around 68 degrees Fahrenheit and down to 50 degrees at night—not always easy to do. However, an unheated sunroom, enclosed porch, a bright, cool window or an east or north-facing windowsill will do. Set the plant pot in a bowl of water and let it “drink” up the water and then return it to the saucer. Soil should dry out a bit between waterings, but not so much that the leaves begin to wilt.

Need a little holiday pick-me-up? Stop by the Garden’s Greenhouses in the Regenstein Center for a peek at the stunning holiday plants. Save time to drop by the Garden Shop for a selection of plants and other holiday gift ideas.

Guest blogger Nina Koziol is a garden writer and horticulturist who lives and gardens in Palos Park, Illinois.

Get ready to play with Little Diggers

There’s a chill in the air. Flurries are flying past the windows. And your child is whining. Winter is coming and parents will need a cure for their children’s encroaching cabin fever. Little Diggers is the answer.

This four-class series gives 2-, 3-, and 4-year-olds a chance to meet once a month and explore nature with caregivers in all seasons—yes, even in winter. The colder months in particular are the best time to encourage children to play in nature, said Mila Love, who coordinates the program.

“We really want to get outside and teach kids that it’s OK to be outside in all types of weather,” she said. “This isn’t a passive, sitting around and listening kind of hour.”

Outdoor play is a part of every Little Diggers class.

The benefits of nature play are many. Research has shown that children who play outdoors build confidence and creativity, and have lower stress levels, among other benefits. Nature play doesn’t need to stop when the holiday decorations come out. Increase the benefits by playing outdoors year-round.

Spending time outdoors is fun for everyone.

So, what does a typical Little Diggers class look like?

Kids and caregivers greet the instructor and check out the activity stations set up for the class theme of the day. Winter themes will be nocturnal animals (January), life in the pond (February), weather (March), and spring (April). They’ll get the chance to try out the different stations, and maybe create some art or build structures. Kids are free to decide what interests them.
Circle time! Kids gather to talk about the month’s theme and read a book about it, then participate in an active, hands-on experience.
Free play time gives Little Diggers participants a chance to check out the activity stations again or pot up a plant to take home. Winter Little Diggers take-home plants will be purple basil (January), nasturtium (February), lamb’s ear (March), and pansies (April).
Next, the group goes outside. There are several locations at the new Regenstein Learning Campus, where Little Diggers participants explore nature. Snow digging might take place in the outdoor classroom space. Planting activities take place in the Grunsfeld Children’s Growing Garden, while Kleinman Family Cove is where you can get a close-up look at aquatic plants and animals.
Wrapping up the hour, kids come back to the classroom to pick-up their plants and projects, and say their goodbyes.

The only time the class stays indoors is when it’s too dangerous to be outdoors (if, for example, the temperature dips below zero degrees Fahrenheit). But that’s rare, so winter Little Diggers participants should dress warmly enough to be outdoors for an extended amount of time.

Instructor Mila Love leads a class of Little Diggers in the Regenstein Learning Center.

Love said she recommends Little Diggers as a first social group experience for toddlers. Because the adults stay with the children, it’s a great way for them to participate in a classroom-like setting before preschool or kindergarten starts, without being too far from their caregivers. Parents can benefit as well from meeting other parents, she said.

At home, children can care for the plants they potted in class. Instructors will often pass on instructions to recreate some of the fun. That herb-scented play dough they loved at Little Diggers can easily be made at home.

In winter, it’s common to want to stay inside because it’s cold. Having a nature-focused program like Little Diggers to look forward to, kids will want to get out and play, no matter what the weather is like.

The winter doldrums won’t stand a chance.

Online registration for Winter Little Diggers is now open. Members receive a discount. Have an older child? Sign up for one of our upcoming Weekend Family Classes, like Joyful Gingerbread of Loco for Cocoa.

Three easy, harvest-inspired Thanksgiving centerpieces

With just a bit of effort, you can make your holiday table warm and inviting—and a worthy backdrop for your meal.

Nancy Clifton, former program specialist at the Chicago Botanic Garden, shared some easy, crafty ideas harvest-inspired centerpieces.

A Festive Look

Here’s how you can make Thanksgiving-themed floral centerpieces like a pro:

Thanksgiving Flower Arrangements

Pick flowers in autumn colors. Buy a few bunches of flowers in different fall colors and textures. Nancy chose red roses, yellow mums, red-yellow mums, and hypericum berries to give the arrangements some variety.

Paint Thanksgiving mason jars. If you want to up your Thanksgiving game, paint your vases in holiday colors such as brown, orange, and ivory. Nancy used craft paint on mason jars, and sanded the lettering on the jars to give them a vintage look.

Save time by measuring flowers. Nancy’s time-saving hack is to trim one flower with pruners and remove foliage at the bottom of the stem. Place that flower in the mason jar vase. If you’re happy with the height, remove the flower and use it as a measuring tool to trim the rest of your flowers.

Fancy Pumpkin Planters

Add a natural look to your table with pumpkin succulent centerpieces. The best part? You can repurpose and eat parts of them when you’re done.

See the demo video on YouTube here.

Gather the basic tools and ingredients. Grab a hot-glue gun, reindeer moss, and floral picks. Gather small- and medium-sized pumpkins (you will want several), a succulent container, bunches of kale, and cabbages.

Assemble the planters. Cut the ends off of your succulents so they have a flat base, and set them aside. Adhere moss to the top of your medium-sized pumpkins with your hot-glue gun. Once the glue is dried, add the succulents on top of the moss, and adhere with hot glue or floral picks.

Arrange your centerpiece. When the pumpkins are dried, place them in the center of a large decorative tray. Add smaller pumpkins, bunches of kale, and cabbages to tray, arranging them in a bountiful display. You can even paint the stems of your small pumpkins with glitter-paint to give them extra-fancy glitz.

Add an intimate glow

Improvise! Try adding pumpkin planters, candles, and string lights to the centerpiece to bring a warm, enchanting feel.

Find more of Nancy’s ideas, check out her 101 on creating Thanksgiving cornucopias.

Growing Plants in Martian Soil

The Martian: Many of us watched and loved the movie. Some of us read the book. A few of us got inspired to use the story to teach plant science to students.

PHOTO: Book cover art for The Martian: a novel — If you are a science enthusiast, I highly recommend reading the book.

The Martian by Andy Weir tells the fictional story of NASA astronaut and botanist Mark Watney, who becomes stranded alone on Mars and has to figure out how stay alive until the next NASA mission returns to rescue him. He plants six potatoes and successfully propagates a crop of potatoes in Martian dirt fertilized with human poop.

The story got me wondering if we could replicate Martian soil with local ingredients and use it for plant experiments. So I contacted the Garden’s soil scientist, Louise Egerton-Warburton, and asked her if this was possible. She responded with a recipe:

Mix two parts crushed volcano rock, two parts basalt dust, one part sand, plus 0.2 parts feldspar
Autoclave (heat to very high temperature) three times to kill microbes
Experiment away!

You know you work in a great place when you can ask a colleague for directions for making Martian soil and you get an immediate, enthusiastic response with suggestions for how to use it. I acquired the materials and cooked up a batch.

PHOTO: a box of basalt, a cup of sand, a bag of feldspar, and a glass beaker containing the Martian soil mixture — I keep the ingredients for Martian soil in my office, in case Mark Watney drops by. Because you just never know. Matt Damon and Andy Weir are also welcome, but I hear they have both moved on to other projects.

One important thing I must mention: technically speaking, this mixture is not truly “soil.” Soil is the upper layer of material on the Earth that serves as an ideal medium for growing plants. It contains inorganic minerals from weathered and broken rocks combined with organic material from the decomposed remains of dead plants and animals. Real soil hosts microscopic bacteria and fungus that facilitate a cycling of nutrients through the ecosystem and convert minerals to a form plants can absorb and use. Soil also supports many little macroscopic critters, like worms and mites, that increase the porosity and affect other properties of the mixture.

The substance we would find on the surface of Mars is called regolith, which is mineral particles that result from weathering of rocks. Since my mixture is an approximation of what might be found on Mars, but made from Earth-sourced ingredients, it should actually be called simulated Martian regolith. But that’s a mouthful, so from here on I’m going to call it Martian soil and ask you, dear readers, to accept the inaccuracy for the sake of simplicity. OK?

I took my Martian soil and set out to answer my first question: what happens if we try to plant seeds in this stuff? Put another way, is it possible to grow plants in Martian soil without adding anything? To answer this question, I took a polystyrene egg carton and planted marjoram seeds (because I had some laying around) in my Martian soil and in some Earth potting soil for comparison.

PHOTO: an 18 egg egg carton that has the 9 cells on the left planted with Martian soil and the nine cells on the right planted in earth potting soil; marjoram has sprouted in all 18 cells. — It was overcast outside when I took this picture in the greenhouse—you’ll have to look closely to see that the marjoram seeds sprouted in both Martian and Earth soils. So far, so good.

The Martian soil is completely different from the potting soil in appearance and texture, and it responds differently when watered. Shortly after the seeds germinated in all of the cells, the Mars side went south. It didn’t hold water very well; it dried out and became hard, almost like concrete. It was no surprise that all of the seedlings on the Mars side died soon after germination. Plants on the Earth side continued to grow and thrive.

PHOTO: The same 18 cell egg carton now has nine Martian soil cells with no plants and nine cells with healthy marjoram growing in Earth potting soil. — It is clear from this test that the Martian soil needs to be amended to grow plants. We were told this in *The Martian*, but now I know it from personal experience. We can use our observations to understand why Martian soil is not a good medium for plants. That’s real science learning!

In the book, Watney used a bucket of Earth soil and human waste to amend the Martian soil for his potato crop. The book and the movie differ on this part—likely because the process required to make Martian soil suitable for growing potatoes was long and tedious. It wouldn’t make for riveting cinema. Instead of cultivating the soil over time, movie-Watney planted a spoonful of rehydrated human poop next to each piece of potato.

While movie-Watney’s actions remind us of stories about the Pilgrims teaching the indigenous people to place a piece of fish next to each kernel of corn to improve the crop yield, there are some problems with applying this method to our Martian soil. The Martian soil would still lack sufficient organic materials and therefore not be able to hold water (as I demonstrated with my marjoram seed experiment). There would be an insufficient population of microbes to break down the human waste. Furthermore, the fecal matter might be so concentrated in nutrients that it could actually be toxic to the potato plants. I don’t believe it would actually work.

This compelled me to do some myth busting for my next experiment: since “humanure” would be unsafe—and gross!—I used worm poop, or vemicompost, which I have in plentiful supply from worm bins in our Learning Center nature laboratory. Also, I discovered that you can order “Martian Regolith Simulant” from a company online (who knew?). Although it’s expensive, it saved me the effort of crushing rocks, so I’m using it from now on.

This time I planted russet potato pieces and some sweet potatoes that had sprouted in my pantry at home (oops!) in azalea pots. I set up three conditions: Martian soil, Martian soil plus vermicompost, and Earth potting soil for comparison.

PHOTO: Three 10-inch pots with potatoes planted in each of the soil conditions: Martian soil, potting soil, and mixture of Martian soil with vermicompost — In spite of my doubts, I’m actually hoping that the potatoes in Martian soil plus vermicompost out-perform the potatoes in plain Martian soil, because bringing worms on a space voyage could prove to be a good solution for future colonists on Mars! But we’ll have to wait and see.

Underlying these experiments (and few other I have tried) is a basic investigation of what plants need to survive. By testing to find the right combination of Martian soil and amendments, and limiting solutions to those that could be transported by a spaceship to another planet, we are using engineering practices because we are trying to solve a problem. This is real-world science and engineering that students could do in the classroom.

PHOTO: Kathy J. sitting in her office wearing a space suit. — Here I am, working on my next astro-botany experiment, for myself, for teachers, and for science!

Besides satisfying my personal curiosity, these experiments are paving the way for some science lessons we are writing for teachers and students.

If you are a teacher interested in learning more about how to teach NGSS-aligned life science lessons using Martian soil, sign up for our workshop, STEM: Growing Plants in Martian Soil on Saturday, December 2, 2017. And watch for other Martian soil training opportunities in the future.

We may never need to grow crops in Martian soil. But as we investigate the challenges of colonizing another planet, we can learn more about what plants need to thrive and also develop a genuine appreciation for how amazing our Earth soil is.