Beth Botts – Page 12 –

This yellow coneflower, shown by the shore of Meadow Lake at The Morton Arboretum, is a prairie perennial that is likely to do well in a sunny garden with well-drained soil. (Beth Botts/The Morton Arboretum)

Go native in your garden

August 18, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.

Late summer is a great time of year to look for native prairie plants that might bring beauty and wildlife habitat to your garden.

By August, many leaves in the garden will have minor holes, spots, scorched edges or tatters. You can spruce up the look of the garden by snipping them off. (Beth Botts/The Morton Arboretum)

Here’s permission to be a lazy gardener as summer wanes

August 11, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.

By the time August comes with its heat and humidity, many gardeners are ready for a break and so are many plants. “The growing season is starting to wind down,”...

Peaches and Cream™ honeysuckle is a woody vine with colorful blooms that is not considered invasive, like some other species of honeysuckle. (Beth Botts/The Morton Arboretum)

Not all honeysuckle plants are invasive

August 4, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.

Their scent may be as sweet as honey, but for many gardeners, honeysuckles have a bad name.

The delicate blooms of seven-son flower appear in late summer on a large, sprawling shrub. (Sharon Yiesla/The Morton Arboretum)

Seven-son will bring eyes to your garden

July 29, 2024 at 6:04 p.m.

If you’re looking for a plant that will make your garden stand out, consider the seven-son flower, an unusual shrub that makes a splash twice each year.

During the summer, scale insects are immobile, appearing as bumps along a branch with a waxy coating that makes them impervious to spraying. (Sharon Yiesla/The Morton Arboretum)

Black mold on branches caused by magnolia scale insects

July 21, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.

We enjoy magnolia trees for their beautiful early spring flowers, but in summer they sometimes get downright ugly. Gardeners may notice a fuzzy black coating on branches or a sticky...

Japanese beetles, like this one on a coneflower, can reduce the leaves of many plants to skeletons. To discourage them, don’t overwater the lawn where their larvae live as grubs. (John Hagstrom/The Morton Arboretum)

Beetle battle in your yard? Here’s what to do.

July 13, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.

What is less lovely than a summer blossom? The sight of a Japanese beetle on that blossom, shiny as an oil slick. “We’re hearing quite a few reports about the...

Cuttings grafted onto rootstocks at The Morton Arboretum are a potential new life for a historic bur oak tree dating back to 1857 that had to be removed from the Lincoln Park Zoo. (Kris Bachtell/The Morton Arboretum)

Trees come and go, but you can help keep heritage trees alive

July 6, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.

A big old tree speaks of history. Somehow, as cities rise, roads are paved and widened, buildings are torn down and replaced, as the very atmosphere of the earth is changing,...

Wilting is a sign that a plant is already stressed, so don’t wait until you see plants wilt before you water long enough to moisten the soil several inches deep. (Beth Botts / The Morton Arboretum)

Plants need help to survive summer heat

July 1, 2024 at 6:45 p.m.

When summer heat waves hit, most people can seek out air conditioning. Plants can’t. “They’re rooted in place, so they have to deal with whatever comes along,” said Sharon Yiesla,...

Distorted and brightly-colored leaves on peach and nectarine trees are the result of a fungal disease called peach leaf curl. It is one of many fungus-caused plant diseases that are more

common after a wet spring. (Sharon Yiesla / The Morton Arboretum).

A wet spring encourages fungal disease

June 22, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.

If you have a peach tree, this may not be your year for peach ice cream. After an especially wet spring, many trees are afflicted with peach leaf curl, a...

When you buy firewood for camping or a backyard fire pit, carefully check to make sure it was cut locally and burn it all in one place. Moving firewood spreads devastating tree pests and diseases across the country. (Beth Botts/The Morton Arboretum)

When you travel with logs, you may be bringing pests along

June 15, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.

When your camping trip comes to an end and you have some firewood left over, you may be tempted to bring it home to use in the fireplace or a...

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