Chicago Botanic Garden

We cultivate the power of plants to sustain and enrich life.

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Bees in the Big City

Andrea Gruver is studying bees along the Metra rail line to see how urbanization impacts their livelihood. What have you noticed in your neighborhood?

The plants you see from your train seat on the Metra Union Pacific North line may help conservation scientists learn about how urban areas impact native bees.

Although most people think of honeybees when they think about bees, there are more than 4,000 native bee species in the United States and 500 species in Illinois alone. Like their honeybee counterparts, native bees are undergoing global…

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I love my plant job

Why not try a career in horticulture? Nurture plants in a green career and play a critical role cultivating the future.

I recently was admiring one of the stately agaves at the Chicago Botanic Garden, and I had a genuine “I love my job” moment. This was not the first time and definitely will not be the last. I took a moment to reflect on that and why my job as a horticulturist is so much more than caring for plants.

I started off as a seasonal employee in the production greenhouses, where we grow and tend for the…

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Conservation Corps Teens Dig Into Summer

This paid summer internship gives young people hands-on conservation and environmental science experience.

You might have noticed a group of hard-working high-schoolers wearing hard hats and toting shovels at the Chicago Botanic Garden this summer. The aspiring conservationists—part of the Conservation Corps—are doing important restoration work throughout the Forest Preserves of Cook County, including a stint at the Garden.

Conservation Corps teens cleared overgrown bushes and installed new plantings…

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Speaking of Lepidoptera: Understanding butterfly vocabulary

The vocabulary surrounding Lepidoptera can be very specific—and not so easy to understand. Let’s break it down with a few key terms.

One day at Butterflies & Blooms, I noticed a crepuscular, cosmopolitan imago puddling in order to prepare for an upcoming lek. What did I just say?

The vocabulary surrounding Lepidoptera can be very specific—and not so easy to understand. Let’s break it down, and go over some of my favorite butterfly and moth terminology (and learn some of the amazing things these insects do). Then, see if you…

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Planting a fire escape herb container

Don't let a lack of yard keep you from planting an herb garden.

I love coming home to my quiet, tree-lined Chicago neighborhood, but one thing I miss about urban living is ample outdoor space.

The back door of my apartment leads to a wooden fire escape—built after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 as a second means of exit from the building. The landing is wide enough to finagle furniture during moves, but doesn’t invite much summertime lounging or late-night…

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Of Assassin Bugs and Damselflies in the Summer Garden

Looking for a pollinator magnet? For a few days in June, the Moroccan mountain eryngo attracted an amazing number of insects. Here are their selfies.

If you happened to walk around the Heritage Garden in late June, the unusual blue color of the Moroccan mountain eryngo (pronounced eh-RING-go), Eryngium variifolium, probably caught your eye, and its peculiar perfume tickled your nose. It was also swarming with flying insects.

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The odor was not lovely and sweet. I would describe…

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A Celebration for the Farm on Ogden

The new partnership between the Garden and Lawndale Christian Health Center takes a “whole person” approach to community health & wellness.

On a bright, sunny Saturday in June, more than 1,500 people came to see just what was happening inside the renovated paint store along Ogden Avenue in the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago.

It was the opening weekend for the Farm on Ogden, a joint project between the Chicago Botanic Garden and Lawndale Christian Health Center (LCHC) that brings food, health, and jobs together under one roof.…

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Discovery of the Red Fernleaf Peony

Sometimes, getting lost on a trip leads to a beautiful discovery and an unexpected treasure.

As plant collectors, we spend a lot of time and energy researching the flora of the areas we are going to visit. We search out areas of the world where the climate is similar to that of the midwestern United States, and we make lists. Lots of lists.

Massive spreadsheets document travel plans, emergency contacts; high-value germplasm that we hope to find at each of our planned collection…

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Transform Your Garden for Evening Outdoor Entertaining

Floriculturist Tim Pollak shares simple tricks for evening entertaining in the garden.

Summer is in the air. As the nights heat up, it’s a perfect time to get outdoors and entertain in your garden. Chicago Botanic Garden floriculturist Tim Pollak shares how you can bring the party to your garden with a few simple tricks for evening entertaining.

Plant light-colored flowers Enhance the darkness of evenings by planting white or cream-colored foliage and flowers. White flowers and…

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Why do monarchs and other butterflies have metallic markings?

What are those specs of gold on the Chrysalids of Monarch Butterflies? Here's a few interesting theories.

At the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Butterflies & Blooms exhibition, I receive a wide variety of questions about butterfly physiology. My favorite questions are ones that don’t have a substantiated answer, only theories posited by lepidopterists (or those who study butterflies and moths). I always enjoy these questions, since they are on the cutting edge of scientific understanding.

One such question…

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Time to Take Your Urban Houseplants Outside

Planting outside this weekend? Take your indoor plants outside, too. #plantparenthood #houseplants

Hey, Chicago. It finally feels better outside. Everyone breathe a sigh of relief with me. Sigh. We made it.

Now that it’s officially patio season, it’s time to get out and enjoy the sun. Which has me wondering…should my houseplants join me outside? Can they?

The spider plant catching some rays.

The process of moving indoor plants outside, called “hardening off,” typically happens around when…

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Penelope Gottlieb creates bold connections to lost species

Through August 12, Penelope Gottlieb takes a close look at plant extinction and invasion in Against Forgetting.

Artist Penelope Gottlieb works in vibrant colors and on large canvases, some as large as 16 feet wide. But as the name of her exhibition, Against Forgetting, at the Chicago Botanic Garden reveals, visitors need to take a close, reflective look. Her paintings address real challenges—extinction, invasive species, and vanishing plants—within the plant world.

A montage of the Extinct Botanicalsprints…

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A Garden Fit for Royalty

Get in royal wedding mood; discover the English Walled Garden's design and heraldry.

Can’t make the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle? Visit the Helen and Richard Thomas English Walled Garden instead.

If you’re in Chicago this weekend, that means—like most of us—you didn’t get an invite to the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, a graduate of Northwestern University. Get in the spirit of the occasion anyway by visiting the English Walled Garden at the Chicago…

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Warblers: Rock Star Migrators

Happy #migratorybirdday! It's a #warbler wonderland at the Garden. Come #birdthepreserves for more #migration mania.

Today is National Migratory Bird Day, set smack dab in the middle of May—the month to look for warblers, vireos, thrushes, sparrows, and some shorebirds, as they migrate through the Chicago area.

Most birders might agree that the highlight this time of year is warblers. It is for me—they are tiny jewels with wings. I feel totally blessed if I can see a few during migration.

Since these birds are…

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Planting Spring Containers With a Designer’s Eye

Bunny Williams shares her container planting design; purchase this container and more at Get Growing Weekend.

It’s finally spring (and practically summer) weather these days at the Chicago Botanic Garden, and we’re bursting to get outside, and get growing.

In just a few weeks, we’ll have the perfect chance to do just that. At Get Growing Weekend on May 18 to 20, gardeners will gather for gardening demonstrations, a spring marketplace, and a one-of-a-kind plant sale to celebrate the much-anticipated…

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Cold April delays some blooms, but now the spring show is on

Did historic cold weather affect early-blooming trees in April?

April definitely did not go out like a lamb this year. You probably didn’t put away your sweater until the end of the month, when temperatures finally hit 80 degrees.

Here at the Chicago Botanic Garden, we recorded our coldest April ever since we started recording temperatures in 1982. Our average high temperature in April was 48.1, which is 8.7 degrees below normal.

What did the cold weather…

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Spring Containers Are Here!

Planting spring containers this weekend? Horticulturist Tom Soulsby has some fresh ideas for you.

Show of hands: Who’s ready for spring?

We are, too.

Thankfully, the bright, blooming containers in the Heritage Garden at the Chicago Botanic Garden were planted this week, welcoming spring and warm fuzzies along with them. Just standing near these spring annuals makes us happy, and for horticulturist Tom Soulsby—who’s been planting these signature troughs for the past 15 years—it’s one of his…

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