Since it’s winter, and we’re all stuck looking at leafless plants outside, why not try growing some plants indoors? Better still, why not experiment with your plants to understand them better? In this activity, you will confuse a bean sprout and train it to grow in any direction you want. Sound like fun? You will … Continue reading How to Train Your Plant
For several months now I’ve heard about a hoary redpoll that has been visiting the Garden. This is an uncommon, very pale, “frosty” version of the common redpoll that often visits the Chicago area in winter. Some say it’s a color variation, and some say it’s a separate species altogether. Either way, I want to … Continue reading The One That Got Away
It’s hard to believe that the Green Roof Garden has been in place for three full growing seasons already. Our horticultural and research staff is pleased to see how the green roof is growing and evolving as plants settle in and move around by rhizomes and reseeding. Despite the challenging weather of 2011 and 2012, … Continue reading Three Years of the Green Roof Garden…and Counting
I was walking under some pine trees near the Learning Campus and I took a picture of the cones I found. When I was young, I noticed there were two different kinds of cones — some solid cones like the three in the lower left corner of the picture, and others are more like the open, branched … Continue reading Play with Your Pine Cones
On a cool August 2011 morning in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, Patrick Herendeen, Ph.D., of the Chicago Botanic Garden began a mission. Gathering with a team of international researchers, he set out into the vast countryside in search of rare plant fossils dating back to the time of dinosaurs, a time called the early … Continue reading Through the Lens of a Plant Detective
