A variety of spring bulbs bloom in a pots at the William T. Kemper Home Gardening Center. Photo by Justine Kandra/ Missouri Botanical Garden. Did you know you can enjoy colorful, fragrant, and cheerful spring blooms in the middle of winter? Many spring-flowering bulbs can be forced to bloom indoors by following a few simple steps.  Now is the perfect time to purchase and prepare bulbs for winter as many nurseries will offer spring bulbs at deep discounts this time of year as they make room for displays of holiday plants and decorations. Most bulbs require a period of cool storage to ..read more

For many Native American communities, three plants have played a vital role in indigenous agricultural practices – corn, beans, and squash. Known as The Three Sisters, these plants demonstrate how people can benefit from working with nature rather than against it. Who are the Three Sisters? Photos by Robin Powell, Gerrit Davidse, and Tom Incrocci / Missouri Botanical Garden. The Three Sisters are corn, beans, and squash. Specifically, the corn varieties are usually flint corn meant for drying and grinding into cornmeal, the beans are usually pole beans that are harvested when fully ripe a ..read more

During the early winter months, the colorful fall foliage we enjoyed just days before begins to find its way into our yards and lawns. For some, these leaves become an eyesore, but for the bugs that stay with us throughout the winter, they play a vital role. Why leave the leaves? As your gardens fade into winter sleep, all the lovely insects you have kindly nourished need you to do next to nothing. Invertebrates rely on fallen leaves for insulating cover when days turn cold. Their ideal shelter is accumulating throughout the fall and early winter, right in your yard.   Most bu ..read more

The botanical world is full of beautiful, remarkable sights and processes that can leave us in awe. But there are also some peculiar plants, mutations, and botanical diseases and disorders that can spark our curiosity or even send a shiver down our spines. Our horticulturalists at the William T. Kemper Center for Home Gardening have compiled this list of strange and fascinating botanical oddities for plant lovers to explore during this Halloween season. Witches’ Brooms Witches’-broom on hackberry (Celtis); caused by a combination of eriophyid mites (Acari) and the powdery mildew fungus. P ..read more

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, we’re having a month-long series focused on our work in Latin America. This week, we’re shining a spotlight on some of our St. Louis-based researchers – people dedicated to unraveling the secrets of Latin American plants and ecosystems. A Century-Long Quest The journey of our Latin American research is both deep and extensive, spanning over 100 years. It began as early expeditions in the 1900s, where the primary goal was to seek unique orchids that could be brought to St. Louis to enrich the Garden’s living collections. These initiatives grew, especially f ..read more

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, we’re having a month-long series focused on our work in Latin America. This week, we’re learning about the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Bolivia program! The Heart of Our Mission in Bolivia Our Bolivia program, like other Latin American initiatives, aims to understand and preserve the rich variety of plant life and the ecosystems they belong to. Our Dedicated Team in Bolivia Our team in Bolivia consists of passionate individuals: • Alfredo Fuentes: The expert on identifying plants. • Leslie Cayola: Oversees the smooth running of the program. • Claudia Aldan ..read more

As our natural food supply faces threats from climate change and habitat loss, crop wild relatives have been a recent research darling.  Crop wild relatives can provide genetic diversity that modern agriculture lacks, offering better resistance to disease and pests. Much research on these wild species has taken place in distant locales, like Kyrgyzstan, which is home to the wild relatives of popular produce like apples, plums, cherries, and almonds. But native North American fruits, like pawpaws and persimmons, are ripe research, too.  “People always talk about crop wild relatives in ..read more

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, we’re having a month-long series focused on our work in Latin America. This week, we’re learning about the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Peru program! Leading the team is Program Director, Rodolfo Vásquez​ (below, first from left in front row), and Program Manager, Rocío Rojas​ (below, second from left in front row). The small but mighty Peru team manages HOXA or the Oxapampa Central Jungle Herbarium (Herbario Selva Central Oxapampa) that was established in 2003 in the town of Oxapampa, Peru. The herbarium specializes in the study of biodiversity (taxon ..read more

Staff and their families at a Garden-managed protected area in Madgascar were invited to a chaya cooking demonstration. In many parts of Madagascar, crop farmers face a food shortage every year between harvests. To try to help with this issue of food insecurity, the Missouri Botanical Garden is starting a trial introducing a super food to farmers: chaya, a perennial spinach-like crop native to Central America. The hope is that once a few families adopt it, the crop will spread naturally and provide nourishment to subsistence farmers and their families in the time when they usually experience f ..read more

Cascade mums grow along a wall in the Japanese Garden of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Photo by Kristina Schall DeYong/Missouri Botanical Garden. While mums (chrysanthemum) are a popular in the late summer and fall thanks to their ability to withstand temperature changes and their variety of colors, cascade mums can add a whole new layer of creativity and beauty to a garden. Growing these beautiful blooms does require quite a bit of planning and the right tools, but the results are stunning. In this Article: What is a Cascade Mum? How to Grow Cascade Mums What you’ll need to grow casc ..read more