University of Illinois Extension

Blog Posts (99)

Ethnobotany: The power of plants and people

Ethnobotany: the power of plants and people background image woven baskets with native fruits and nuts including walnuts

Leave grasses intact in the garden through fall and winter

grass covered in ice

Massive fruit, myths, and mastodons: the Osage orange

Massive fruit, myths, and mastodons: the Osage orange fruit of Osage orange in metal bucket

Providing winter hospitality to wildlife

More than trees: enjoy the fall color of grasses

landscape view of a prairie in fall, with reddish grasses and white wildflowers

Autumn allergies: don’t blame goldenrod

Autumn allergies: don’t blame goldenrod bee on yellow goldenrod bloom

Bermudagrass: You either love it or hate it

Methods for identifying plants is a great learning experience

Use Mother Nature to break seed dormancy

Conservation Status of the Monarch Butterfly

Goldenrods and asters are the stars of fall

Goldenrods and asters provide some of the showiest flowers of fall, but can be aggressive in gardens if not planted appropriately.

Attracting wildlife with native plants

blackcapped chickadee with a caterpillar in it's mouth

Grasses can be purple?

purple inflorescences of purpletop

Breaking down the rye grasses

clump of Canada wild rye in bloom

Sunflowers symbolize summer, elevate garden displays and double as a snack for wildlife

focus on one sunflower in front of a field of sunflowers lit from behind by sun

Sedges for the Landscape

False Indigo - A Native Shrub for the Home Landscape

Identifying the Grama Grasses

close up of the spikelets of side oats grama grass, looking like little red eyelashes

Add some fireworks to your garden this Fourth of July

Add some fireworks to your garden this Fourth of July. Pink flowers of nodding onion.

What’s growing? A look at Gama Grass

grassy edge with gama grass in bloom

Native hydrangea trial evaluates pollinator value and landscape attributes

Native wildflowers support pollinators but may be declining at the state-level

Bluebells

Delay garden spring cleanup, encourage native insects

A plant stem is broke in half revealing the open cavity in the stem.

Illinois' Only Native Bamboo Species

bamboo

New Research Assesses the Value of Urban Pollinator Gardens

monarch

How accurate are photo-based plant identification apps?

Leaf

2022 gardening trends and emotional resilience

pollinator on oregano flower

Deicing Salts and Plant Damage

Deicing

Communing with nature boost emotional health

Hazelnuts: A native plant is a new crop for Illinois

developing hazelnuts

Pokeweed teaches us to ask questions about the natural world

green leaves, black berries, red/purple stems

Fall Flowering Asters

The star shaped flowers of New England aster provide a much needed floral resource for migrating pollinators, like the monarch butterfly.

Native Shrubs for Fall

Smooth sumac is a commonly occurring native plant that boasts a spectacular fall display of fiery red leaves.

Pawpaws are a native fall fruit that taste delightful

Using natives in a home landscape

Purple coneflowers and other native plants in front of house

Pollinators and Roadways

Roadside plantings of pollinator habitat can present some risk of insect mortality from passing traffic, but the benefits outweigh the risks. Photo Credit: Jeff Kohmstedt, Prairie Rivers Network

Aster Yellows on Coneflower

This purple coneflower is infected with aster yellows, which produce odd and deformed flowers that can actually be interestingly attractive at times, but must be controlled to limit infection of other susceptible species in the landscape.

Aphids on Milkweed

Common milkweed in bloom

Thank an ant for spreading your Dutchman's breeches

The wonderful wild pawpaw: America's largest, least-known tree fruit

Factors to consider when choosing tree species

Celebrate Pollinator Week by Growing Native Plants

Two-spotted bumble bee on a spirea flower

Adding purple shade trees to your landscape

‘Forest Pansy’ is a cultivar of our native redbud that offers unique purple foliage.

Adding more blooms to your garden invites more birds

humming bird feeding from zinnias

Wild columbine attracts both beneficial pollinators and non-native pests

Wild columbine is in bloom this week across central Illinois

The top four spring-flowering trees to plant

Redbud is a fantastic spring-flowering tree offering the best floral display of any Illinois native tree.

9 native Illinois shrubs for sun and shade

Amorpha canescens - Lead Plant - Layne Knoche

Spring brings spring beauties to the landscape

Spring brings spring beauties to the landscape - a clump of blooming spring beauty plants in turf

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

Sticky seed dispersal and plants with eye-catching leaves

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

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.

The basics of tree identification: branches, buds, and fruit

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" - do cultivars of native plants have the same benefits?

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

Break bad fall garden cleanup habits

Black Swallowtail by Deanna Frautschi

Purslane - Weed It Or Eat It?

An Osage orange by any other name would be a hedge apple

Osage orange fruit

News Releases (57)

Planning a new perennial garden? Plant for the whole garden ecosystem

Extend the season with fall flowers for your beds, borders, and containers

Give monarch butterflies something to munch on, plant native milkweeds

7 ways to reduce your lawn's dependence on chemicals, water, and mowing

Paddle Devil’s Kitchen Lake during Kayak Botany Tour

Four Seasons Gardening Series will answer homeowners' common questions

Native prairie grasses create distinct, breezy aesthetic in home landscape

Start your growing season with the annual Kendall County Master Gardener plant sale May 21

Every bloom matters when it comes to helping pollinators

Kendall Master Gardeners host annual plant sale May 21

McHenry County 4-H Members Plant Oak Trees

Native Trees in Illinois

Visit the Master Gardener Plant Sale for quality you can trust

Why plant natives?

Beautify your landscape with plants from the annual Master Gardener Plant Sale

Early blooming spring ephemerals flowers welcome warmer weather

Celebrate native plants

McHenry County Gardenfest Brings Spring on April 9

Be inspired for a great growing season at April in Paris gardening seminar

Attract more butterflies to your garden with tips from an expert

Dig in to gardening at Piatt County Master Gardeners’ educational day

Should you make your garden tidy in the fall or spring?

Extension Master Gardeners create native landscaping demonstration at Therkildsen Field Station at Emiquon

Spruce and Callery pear can be problematic for your midwestern landscape

Master Naturalist Native Tree and Shrub Sale 2022

Summer blooms simplify warm-season grass identification

Learn about heirloom gardening and native plants at free garden tour

Create a bird-friendly yard

Get to know the incredible Illinois milkweed

Tour some of the best gardens with the McHenry County Extension Master Gardeners’ and MCC’s Garden Walk 2021 on July 10

Native plant education aids natural habitat preservation

Extension Master Gardeners Educate the community about native plants at Morton Public Library

Kendall Master Gardeners host plant sale May 15

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 June 12

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 (6)

Christopher Enroth

Christopher Enroth

Horticulture Educator

female, white, brown hair, business attire.

Abigail Garofalo

Natural Resources, Environment, and Energy 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

Jamie Viebach

Jamie Viebach

DuPage County Master Gardener Program Coordinator