University of Illinois Extension

Events (4)

Macon County Carolyn Mason Education Day: Out Your Back Door

8:30 AM - Noon

Sat, 04/17/2021 - 12:00

Macon County Extension Office, 3351 North President Howard Brown Blvd, Decatur, IL 62521

Wooden fence and door with outside scenery cartoon

Shade Gardens: Native Plants & Ecological Benefits | Everyday Environment Webinars

1 PM CDT

Thu, 05/13/2021 - 12:00

Online

purple native plants

Kendall County Master Gardener Plant Sale

9:00 AM - 2:00 PM

Sat, 05/15/2021 - 12:00

7775B IL Route 47, Yorkville IL 60560

decorative graphic

Anything Grows Webinar Series: Natives

Noon - 1 PM

Fri, 06/18/2021 - 12:00

Online

gardening tools growing out of the ground

Blog Posts (49)

Tread lightly as the hunt begins for morel mushrooms

Edible wild mushrooms are more than just your next meal

Three morel mushrooms

Spring Garden Cleanup

Standing dead stems are important overwintering habitat that should not be removed from the garden until insects emerge later in spring.

River Birch

River birch is a native tree with excellent winter appeal from its beautiful, exfoliating bark.

Species Profile - Harbinger-of-Spring

Harbinger-of-spring plant in bloom

Eliminating the Competition...Allelopathy in Plants

clockwise from upper left: tree of heaven, amur honeysuckle, garlic mustard and oriental bittersweet

Angiosperms vs Gymnosperms

Gymnosperms, like this Colorado blue spruce, are a group of nonflowering plants that emerged several hundred million years before flowering plants (angiosperms) entered the evolutionary history of the plant kingdom.

What's in a Name?

Natives and Landscape Plant Selection

Native butterfly milkweed is a favorite among gardens for its beautiful flowering display and high wildlife value, but native plants are a surprising minority of plant material available for purchase each year in the US.

Fall evokes the five basic senses - November, 2020

Sticky seed dispersal and plants with eye-catching leaves - July, 2020

Winter Protection for Newly Planted Trees and Shrubs

Metal hardware cloth is a great material to protect young trees and shrubs from winter browsing wildlife.

Top Four Spookiest Native Trees

Honey locust can have large and terrifying thorns making it one of our spookiest native trees.

More spooky and scary plants

dark purple spathe of Dragon arum

Burning Bush

Master Naturalists at Meadowbrook

Sunflowers

Buttonbush

Eastern Prairie Fringed Orchid

Native Plants and Biodiversity

Climate Change and USDA Plant Hardiness Zones Part Three

Bird Migration and Native Shrubs

Fall Color in Native Grasses and Their Ornamental Uses

American Ginseng

The Headwaters Invasive Plants Partnership

Gardening with Natives

Goldenrods for Landscaping

Solidago rugosa ‘Fireworks’ is a cultivar of our native wrinkle-leaved goldenrod that provides a spectacular display of fireworks-like flowers for up to 2 months in late summer and fall.

How Native is Native?

Bald cypress is an Illinois native plant only know to occur in extreme southern Illinois. While it does wonderfully when planted here is central Illinois, should it be considered native?

Take your butterfly garden to the next level

Advanced butterfly gardening

silvery checkerspot by kathy dumler

Favorite Perennials For the Sun

plox from pixabay

Early History of Pollinators and Plants

This two-spotted bumble bee forages pollen on the flower of a spirea shrub

Landscaping with Native Grasses

These young prairie dropseed plants will mature into a nice sidewalk border of thin, feathery vegetation.

Poison Ivy

Poison ivy can be tricky to identify in the field, but the “mitten-like” appearance of leaflets that develop a rounded tooth, as pictured here, is a distinguishing feature.

Sycamores and Anthracnose

Sycamores across central Illinois are late to leaf out this year due to a commonly occurring fungal infection.

Get Out on the Trails

Hedge Apple Woods, Bloomington, by Rick Tindall

Recommended Replacements for Problem Trees

Native hawthorn trees are in full bloom this week with a canopy filled with tiny white flowers.

Invasive Species

Garlic mustard is in full bloom right now with clusters of tiny white flowers and distinctive leaves that have a garlic-like aroma when crushed.

Virginia Bluebells

Bluebells are a beautiful native wildflower that adds a splash of blueish-purple to both woodlands and landscape gardens in spring.

Tree Identification

Ash trees have a distinctive, opposite branch arrangement observable by twigs that occur directly across from each other on each stem.

Harbinger of Spring

Photo Credit: Teresa Dewitt

Illinois has an Abundance of Milkweeds

Butterfly milkweed is the only Illinois milkweed with orange flowers, which provide a showy display each summer, often blooming a second time around early

Witch Hazel

Chinese witch hazel blooms during the late winter to early spring with a flowering display that often lasts over a month.

Mysterious Orchids

The yellow lady’s slipper orchid is an Illinois native that can be grown in cultivation. Photo credit: Chris Benda.

Walks of Discovery

dirt path through trees

Native vs. "Nativar"

This non-native, kousa dogwood (Cornus kousa ‘Klipka’) was bred for variegated leaves which may greatly affect insect leaf feeding.

Cranberries

picture of cranberry plants and ripe cranberry fruit

Spooky and Scary Plants

Spooky and Scary plants with doll's eyes plant berries

Purslane - Weed It Or Eat It?

News Releases (24)

It's wild out there! Learn about nature at Master Naturalist education day

Log on to the McHenry County Virtual Gardenfest on April 10

Lake County Extension Master Gardener Spring Plant Sale

Environmental webinars explore owls, native shade gardens

Planning, designing a native garden

Small-space containers big with new gardeners

Heirloom flowers provide fragrance, beauty, pollinator support

Spruce, Callery pear have no home in Illinois landscapes

Birds, bees need growers' help to keep pollinating

Become a U of I Extension Master Gardener

Red Oak Rain Garden nears completion with award of grants

Taking a deep dive into aquatic plant identification

Learn how to tell which grass is which

Conservation virtual workshop provides best practices for landowners and managers

Plant native perennials in the fall for healthy spring growth

Discover summer plants of Illinois during Walk and Talk Webinar

Create a caterpillar cafe out of your butterfly garden

Use native prairie plants in the home landscape

Communities Join in Master Gardeners' Annual Seed Swap

‘Think Spring!’ Learning Series Underway with Kane County Master Gardeners

Winter Seed Sowing

Extension to Host Seed Collecting Workshop

Extension Shares Information on Native Plants

Extension to Host Native Plant Workshop

Staff (4)

Christopher Enroth

Christopher Enroth

Horticulture Extension Educator

Doug Gucker staff photo

Douglas B. Gucker

Local Food Systems and Small Farms Educator

Andrew Holsinger

Andrew Holsinger

Horticulture Educator

Beth Miglin

Beth Miglin

Horticulture Program Coordinator