University of Illinois Extension

Blog Posts (64)

Designing from the ground up: Ground covers for your landscape

Barrenwort leaves

Prune properly, your forsythia and lilac shrubs will thank you

Yellow flowers on stems of forsythia, wood chip background

Garden worthy 'Plants of the Year'

Two photos side-by-side: Left, little bluestem in fall; right, purple and yellow violas

Add Agroforestry Plants to Your Garden

A single ripening asian pear hangs among green leaves.

Want continuous blooms in your yard?

The Winter Garden Needs Planning Too

Deicing Salts and Plant Damage

Deicing

Common questions answered as we transition to winter

Ravaging Rodents and Fall Planted Bulbs

Take care of hostas going into winter

Hosta in fall

Fall care for spring and summer bulbs

flower bulbs

How to plant flower bulbs for a colorful spring display

How to plant flower bulbs for a colorful spring display. Different types of spring-blooming bulbs

Fall watering is important

Northern Illinois dry conditions and why watering matters

Plant Stereotyping - July 2021

Iris for Collecting and Asparagus for Eating - May, 2021

Thank an Ant for Spreading Your Dutchman's Breeches - April 2021

Winter Bloomers Add a Spot of Cheer - March, 2021

Adding more blooms to your garden invites more birds

humming bird feeding from zinnias

Grow herb gardens for more than the kitchen

Flowering herbs provide ornamental beauty to the edge of this pollinator garden

Perennial plant of the year: Calamint

calamint and Echinacea

When should I divide my perennials

splitting a hosta

Gardening and jumping worms in northern Illinois

Spring Garden Cleanup

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

How Plants Survive Freezing Temperatures - January, 2021

Ordering seeds from garden catalogs

Overwintering potted plants

pots with dormant plants covered in snow clustered together on a porch

Late fall yard tasks - from mower to snowblower

Fall Gardening Tasks

planting spring bulbs amongst fall perennials

Sedum is a reliable fall food source for foraging butterflies

butterflies on sedum by Candace Hart

Daylilies

Buttonbush

The 'Annabelle' Hydrangea

The ‘Annabelle’ hydrangea is a cultivar that was originally collected from a wild specimen in southern Illinois and remains one of the most popular in production today.

Daffodils

Charles Darwin and Orchids

Houseplants and Indoor Air Quality

Climate Change and USDA Plant Hardiness Zones Part Three

Holiday Cacti

Fall Color in Native Grasses and Their Ornamental Uses

The Monarch Butterfly

Dividing Perennials in Spring

Snow Crocus

Orchids

2018 Gardening Goals

Fall Garden Cleanup and Wildlife

Idea Garden Tropicals on the Move

Mums

A different fall-blooming beauty

aster, purple with yellow centers. credit: pixabay.

French intensive gardens root well in Central Illinois

full season french intensive garden

How plants and pests begin preparing for fall

Divide and Conquer in Fall

brilliant red-orange oriental poppy pixabay

Pollinator Pockets

Submit your application today so you can proudly post a Pollinator Pockets sign in your garden.

Hostas

Hand pollination of last year’s hosta flowers produced the seeds used to grow this tray of hosta seedlings. However, it will take a few more years for these plants to mature and truly express the traits gained from hybridization. Photo credit: Barb and Rick Schroeder

Advanced butterfly gardening

silvery checkerspot by kathy dumler

Favorite Perennials For the Sun

plox from pixabay

Plant Phenology for Identification

The tufted seedheads of reed canary grass are easily noticed this time of year.

Top 5 early summer topics for gardeners

Landscaping with native grasses

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

Virginia Bluebells

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

What is springing up?

Designing Around Specific Colors and Plants

nodding onion

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

The 2020 Perennial Plant of the Year with Martha Smith

Aralia cordata 'Sun King' Photo credit Janet Draper

How to Achieve Asparagus's Perpetual Harvest

male asparagus ferns on left, female asparagus ferns with seed on the right

News Releases (11)

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

Kendall Master Gardeners host annual plant sale May 21

Kendall Master Gardeners host plant sale May 15

Whiteside County Master Gardeners Presenting Mums The Word Workshop April 17

Whiteside County Master Gardeners Host Demonstration Shade Garden Tour

The gardening methods you need to tell goodbye

Illinois Extension to Offer Get Growing Webinar Series

Add interest by creating a moonlight garden

Fall garden cleanup lays groundwork for a successful spring

Select and plant spring-flowering bulbs now

Plant native perennials in the fall for healthy spring growth

Staff (2)

Christopher Enroth

Christopher Enroth

Horticulture Educator

Sarah Vogel staff photo

Sarah Vogel

Horticulture and Natural Resources Educator