Were you able to dry some of the herbs or flowers you grew in your garden this summer? If so, there are a multitude of easy gifts you can make for the holiday season using those herbs. And if you're not an herb grower, don't worry, they're just as easy to purchase at the grocery store! We made the...

Plant of the Week! On a tour of the Illinois Executive Mansion in Springfield this week, it was hard not to notice the beautiful Bottlebrush Buckeyes (Aesculus parviflora) blooming! The bottlebrush buckeye is a multi-stemmed, suckering shrub that suckers...

Plant of the Week! If there ever was a quint-essential perennial that instantly reminds me of summer, it's got to be the Black Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida). This dependable perennial is blooming beautifully right now. More than likely if you've got...

Plant of the Week! This week the Tiger Lilies (Lilium lancifolium) are blooming beautifully in my garden. Tiger lilies are actually a bulb, similar to how all other true lilies grow. This lily in particular grows to about 4 ft in height and has formed a...

Last week I wrote about the browning that is occurring on evergreens this spring, but we also have some other problems that are being noticed on evergreens throughout the landscape. The first is caused by those pesky deer.Deer can feed on and damage terminal and side branches of small trees and...

The popular First Detector Program, is returning to northern Illinois next year, this time with more new topics. Kelly Estes, Agriculture Pest Survey Coordinator, announced the dates for the 2015 Illinois First Detector Workshops last week. This is the third year the First Detector Workshops will...

Japanese beetles have made their annual emergence and the damage can be seen in many gardens. So far, we haven't heard reports of any large numbers of Japanese beetles in Northern Illinois. It's been believed that the numbers would be lower this year because of the harsh winter we had this season,...

Plant of the Week! This week the beautiful Japanese Tree Lilacs (Syringa reticulata) are blooming! This lilac differs from the much loved Common Lilac in size and flower. The Japanese tree lilac is more of a small tree in habit growing to 15-25 feet tall...

Now that fall has arrived and the winter season is approaching, many of us start to notice various insect critters trying to find shelter inside our homes. The good news is that most of these insects are perfectly harmless and are simply a nuisance. In fact, many of these insects are actually...

Plant of the Week! Two weeks ago we discussed the Bearded Iris, but this week it's all about the Siberian Iris (Iris sibirica). Siberian iris looks quite different with its fine textured strap like leaves as opposed to the fan like foliage of the bearded...

Evergreens are always a nice addition to the landscape. They provide a pop of green foliage in the winter when everything else in the landscape is without leaves or winter interest. But these evergreens are more than just for landscape use, evergreens can be easily cut and harvested for use...

Reading my weekly newsletters this week I came across a good article with some tips on overwintering perennials in containers. I for one love to add perennials, like Coral Bells which has excellent foliage color choices, to my container mixes, but I always remove them early enough to get planted in...

Plant of the Week! This week's plant is a lovely shrub, the Shrubby Cinquefoil or Potentilla, (Potentilla fruticosa). I have this shrub surrounding my mailbox and its blooming now with lovely yellow blooms. The great feature of the potentilla is its...

While the name "weed" in any plant name scares many gardeners, milkweed plants add beauty to the garden and are essential for providing habitat for monarch butterflies. Monarch butterflies will only lay their eggs on the leaves of milkweed plants and then the larvae feed only on these leaves. These...

Last winter was a tough one on many of our evergreens. Most gardeners had severe browning on many of their evergreen trees and shrubs, and some were even killed by the cold winter winds of winter. This year, take some steps to prevent some of that damage. The problem comes when water isn't...

The questions about Maple Tar Spot have started to come in to our local Extension offices, which is a standard occurrence this time of year. Several different fungi in the genus Rhytisma infect the leaves of maples and cause raised, black spots to form on upper leaf surfaces. The diseases...

This summer I've been trying out some various hydroponic setups that one could utilize in their own home or in the classroom. I initially started the project to show teachers in the hopes that they could implement a system in their classrooms. I showed these setups at the local Summer Ag Institute...

Plant of the Week The irises are blooming beautifully in my garden and it seems in everyone else's gardens right now! The Bearded Iris (Iris x hybrida) is looking particularly great. According to the American Iris Society, iris can be classified into...

I'm a big fan of flowering bulbs of all kinds, especially when I'm able to force those bulbs indoors. Forcing is a technique that imitates the environmental conditions that bulbs encounter outdoors, thereby tricking them into flowering earlier. So essentially, you can bring the...

University of Illinois Extension is pleased to announce that Master Gardener Training will be held in Ogle County on Fridays beginning September 5 to November 21. This will be the first time that training will be offered in the fall instead of the spring! The trainings will be held from 9:00 am to...