SPRING
Cover: Dozens of vibrant tulips in the Crescent Garden signal the start of spring.
The Sensory Garden comes alive through feel, smell, sight, and sound.
Ask Our Plant People
Spring ushers in a fresh growing season for winter-weary plant lovers—but it also brings its own set of challenges. Chester Jankowski, senior horticulturist, shares the essential dos and don’ts to help you thrive this season.
Q: What are the risks of working in garden beds too early?
A: You can harm plants emerging in the soil. Bulbs, for instance, are very tender, and they come out of the ground slowly. Unless you remember where every single bulb you’ve ever planted is, you may be stepping on them and setting them back. The same goes for the crowns of perennials.
Q: Many gardeners don’t cut down their plants in the fall, to provide a haven for overwintering pollinators. When is it safe to start cleanup?
A: You can cut things down early in the season, but leave everything in the yard or— better yet—leave it in the garden bed, on top of the plants you just cut. We call this “cut and drop.”
Also, stay off garden beds when the soil is wet to prevent compaction, which depletes crucial oxygen. If mud sticks to your boots, it’s too wet to work.
Stack debris in a compost bin or yard corner until warmer weather. Beneficial insects will emerge by mid- to late April or after several days above 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
Q: What about pruning shrubs?
A: In early- to midspring, prune one-third of the largest branches on your shrubs to rejuvenate them. Pruning creates more vigor, and plants will be stronger. The exception is spring-flowering shrubs, such as forsythia (Forsythia spp.) and lilacs (Syringa vulgaris): Wait to prune until after they flower.
Q: How soon can we mulch?
A: There’s never a bad time to mulch. Now, if you add mulch when the ground is cold, it will keep the soil cooler as we come out of winter. That’s not a bad thing, it just may delay your blooms. Mulch builds soil structure, helps regulate fluctuating temperatures and, when it breaks down, attracts beneficial insects.
Q: What about fertilizing?
A: Before you mulch, apply a slowrelease fertilizer over the soil. You may completely forget you did this, but your plants will thrive throughout
the growing season. We use Milorganite. It’s composed of heatdried microbes and is made by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District. (Milorganite is sold at garden centers and big box stores.)
Q: OK, the age-old question. How early can we actually plant plants?
A: Perennials are fine to plant as soon as the soil warms up. For warm-season annuals and vegetables, ask yourself if you’re willing to cover them, protect them, or do a little extra to watch for early-season temperature dips. Are you willing to take that gamble? (laughs) I am! I always try to plant as early as possible. One piece of advice, though: Never gamble any more than you can stand to lose.
Plant Information Service can answer your gardening questions. Visit in person at the Regenstein Center, call (847) 835-0972, or email plantinfo@ chicagobotanic.org
The Perfect Day: A Crabapple Walk
Flowers open not by the calendar but according to their own genetic coding, temperatures, moisture, and light cues. The element of surprise means that visitors never know when one of the signature spring moments will arrive— the flower show put on by the crabapple trees circling the Great Basin.
Follow this path to catch them at their peak, typically in late April or early May.
Begin at the overlook
Begin your stroll by the English Walled Garden. Wander to the overlook of the Great Basin’s edge. Across the water, you’ll see Evening Island, the Arch Bridge, the graceful curves of the Serpentine Bridge, and the crabapple blossoms.
Head toward the Arch Bridge
Walk from the overlook toward the Arch Bridge, which takes you through masses of flowering perennials, bulbs, ornamental grasses, and ground covers, laid out in a tapestry of color and texture that bloom in sequence with the crabapples above them.
Views from Evening Island
After crossing the Arch Bridge to Evening Island, head toward the Carillon bell tower, then take the pathway lined with crabapple blossoms toward the Serpentine Bridge. The reflected images of flowering trees are intensified in the water. When the petals drop and the wind picks up, it seems to rain with flowers.
Cross the Serpentine Bridge
Cross the Serpentine Bridge for a perfect opportunity to look back at the ring of nonstop blooming beauty around the water.
A Platform of Hope
Spring arrives at the Garden with a flourish of blooms, but this year, many eyes are fixed on an 80-foot pole rising toward the sky. Atop it sits a hexagonal platform, built for a threatened species in Illinois.
It was late April last year when a pair of ospreys were spotted on the platform nest for the first time since it was installed in 2016, in partnership with the Friends of the Chicago River and the Forest Preserves of Cook County. It is viewable from the North Branch Trail near Dundee Road.
Now, as the earth awakens from winter, the question looms: Will they return?
“We are hopeful for another pair,” said Peter Nagle, managing ecologist, lakes and shorelines. “Some data suggests that once a pole is occupied it tends to have a nest the following year.”
The osprey is at risk of disappearing as a breeding species. Ospreys are fish-eating raptors that migrate south, and winter from the southern United States to South America. They are often seen during their migrations, yet few remain in Illinois to nest. The lack of suitable nesting structures has been identified as a limiting factor to their breeding success here.
Photo courtesy of Janet Pellegrini
Your Spring Invitations
Experience spring at the Garden, where the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes will lift your spirits. Here’s a preview of the wonders awaiting you.
Open daily, 8 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Garden Tour, Education Greenhouses
Tuesday, April 8 9 – 10 a.m.
Join our horticulturist to learn about the history, operations, and unique environmental conditions of our Greenhouses. Discover a variety of plants that make excellent houseplants despite not thriving in our local climate. Visit our website for details.
Spring Bird Watch
Select Thursdays and Saturdays, through May 29
Explore the best spots at the Garden for locating the early birds of spring. Each walk is about one to two hours long. Dress for the weather, and bring binoculars and a field guide, if you have one. Visit our website for details.
Midwest Bonsai Society Spring Show & Sale
Saturday & Sunday May 17 – 18 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
The spring show will feature flowering bonsai, bonsai on rocks, and trees in various stages of development with interpretation highlighting the caretakers’ intentions.
Dining
Stop by the Garden View Café and enjoy culinary offerings being rolled out across our dining locations this year by Levy, our new food and beverage partner. The Garden View Café opens every day at 8 a.m. Outdoor dining options include the Garden Grille and the Rose Terrace Beer Garden, open daily at 11 a.m. (weather permitting), starting Memorial Day weekend.
FREE WITH ADMISSION
Top off your visit with these great free attractions.
Plant Giveaway
Visit the Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Garden Wednesdays through Sundays, starting May 14, to take home a seed or seedling and get growing tips.
Generously sponsored by JULIE, Inc., and North Shore Gas
Model Railroad Garden: Landmarks of America
Opening May 10, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Model G-scale trains run on 19 tracks, winding over bridges and trestles, and around models of American landmarks—surrounded by 5,000 plants of more than 300 varieties.
Generously sponsored by Endeavor Health
Tram Tours
Beginning in April, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Learn about the Garden on a 2.3-mile narrated Grand Tram Tour. Optional stops allow passengers to explore the 28 distinct gardens and four natural areas on their own.
Butterflies & Blooms
Opening May 24, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
This popular, family-friendly destination on the Regenstein Learning Campus is filled with hundreds of live butterflies from around the world.
Nature Play Garden
The Nature Play Garden hills and lawn are open from mid-April through mid-November.
Rescuing Plants From Poachers
At the end of a greenhouse bench sit dozens of squat, thornless, gray-green cacti called Ariocarpus fissuratus. Native only to Mexico and southwestern Texas, they’ve been carefully tended by Chicago Botanic Garden horticulturists since 2019, after being seized by federal agents at O’Hare International Airport.
Sometimes called the living rock cactus, Ariocarpus fissuratus is prized by collectors who either don’t know or don’t care that the plant is critically endangered. To meet that demand, unscrupulous plant dealers pay local people to collect the cacti, then try to slip them past U.S. Customs to feed an international black market.
This illegal trade is so lucrative that nearly a third of the world’s cactus species are now endangered. Contraband orchids, succulents, and cycads also are frequently intercepted at U.S. airports. The confiscated plants are entrusted to Plant Rescue Centers; the Garden is one of more than 90 centers nationwide.
pot on a sunny windowsill. Gabriela Rocha Alvarez, the Garden’s plant recorder, estimates they are 50 to 60 years old. Specimens this size can command hundreds or even thousands of dollars on the black market.
As a living museum, the Garden welcomes rare specimens to its collection to display, to educate the public, and to preserve parts of dwindling populations. But fostering entire shipments of plants indefinitely is an inefficient use of resources. Typically, only one or two plants are on display, while dozens more are lovingly tended but never leave the greenhouse.
The largest of the Ariocarpus fissuratus housed in the Garden’s greenhouses are maybe 6 inches tall, just big enough to display in a modest
“People want to see things they wouldn’t see otherwise, but we don’t need to keep them all,” Rocha said.
The Garden has begun the process of repatriating the cacti to Mexico by partnering with the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, which maintains a batch of Ariocarpus fissuratus from the same seized shipment, and Autonomous University of Querétaro, Mexico, which will take custody of them.
If this process is successful, Rocha hopes to replicate it whenever possible. Next up: a confiscated shipment accepted by the Garden last April, which contained nine species suspected to have been poached from South Africa and Mexico.
Gabriela Rocha Alvarez, plant recorder
Do Plant Apps Really Work?
In the age of smartphones, identifying plants has never been easier—just snap a photo and let the app do the rest. While plant identification apps are convenient, and the algorithms are getting more sophisticated and refined, they can also be wrong.
Smartphone apps help identify plants.
TIP 3
What’s a gardener to do? Here’s expert advice from Adam Dooling, director of plant collections.
TIP 1
It is important to know that no app is perfect. Misidentifications can occur, especially with similar-looking species. Poor quality photos or inadequate descriptive input can significantly affect the accuracy of your results.
“There are a lot of bad apps and bad information out there. I see lots of pseudoscience and misinformation from them, often showing up on social media platforms,” said Dooling. “So, it’s important to know how to be a good researcher and use your app wisely.”
TIP 2
Dooling suggests using Google Lens or Google reverse image search if there is any doubt about what information pops up on an app. He also likes iNaturalist, which is free. Google Lens is an AI-powered visual search tool that allows users to identify
objects, plants, animals, landmarks, and text simply by taking a photo of them. A Google reverse image search allows users to search the web using an image rather than text.
“This kind of careful cross-checking is a very good practice for amateurs and experts alike,” Dooling said.
Don’t become overly reliant on an app. They can be an excellent aid to have on hand, but striving to become more and more of an expert yourself can make your experience in the garden more enriching.
“I want to emphasize that people should be applying their research skills when looking up a plant; books, references, the Internet, and most importantly, critical thinking skills,” Dooling said.
TIP 4
Make the learning experience fun. Always try to identify the plant yourself first, then use the app to see if it agrees with you. If so—once you’ve vetted and confirmed the result—pat yourself on the back for your own expertise. And if the app disagrees with your choice, make it a learning moment. Dig deeper with other sources, such as reverse image search or other reliable sources, so that you are always continuing to hone your own skills.
Four Generations of Family Find Inspiration and Community
When Judy and Larry Hicks moved to Wilmette in 1978, the young couple began exploring the area. “We went to the Garden and immediately thought, ‘This is a spectacular place’,” Judy said.
It’s been 47 years since that first visit and their enthusiasm hasn’t waned. Over the decades, they’ve made treks to the Garden as often as possible, enjoying the landscapes through the eyes of their children, and now grandchildren.
After retiring from demanding careers in healthcare and consulting, the couple found the Garden a source of calm, inspiration, and creativity. They began taking yoga classes in 2008, and during the pandemic they attended the class online. “There’s always something to do— new attractions, new curiosities, and all the classes, which are an incredible resource—cooking, flower arranging, writing—they seem to know the interests of visitors.”
One day, when Judy’s sister dropped their elderly mother off at the Visitor Center, Vivienne Jones, director of principal gifts, was nearby and kept her company while the car was parked. “Our mom became best buddies with Vivienne who made us feel very welcome,” Judy said. “My mom felt extremely special. She became a regular and loved it.”
Four generations of the family have now enjoyed the Garden, including grandchildren Eleanor and Beatrice.
Three years ago, the Garden invited the couple for a behind-the-scenes tour to showcase projects and initiatives, further inspiring their giving to the Garden. “It’s such an important resource for the community—and it’s inclusive, with so many offerings for people of all ages and backgrounds.”
Donors like Judy and Larry help open hearts and minds to the natural world. Every gift to the Garden makes a difference. To donate now, please call (847) 835-6925, email donorservices@ chicagobotanic.org, or scan the QR code on the opposite page.
Thank you for helping us grow a better world through programs that connect people with plants.