Archives

• Gardening with Native Plants: Considerations for Starting a Garden September 3, 2024

  During September, summer and autumn overlap. Temperatures and blooming phenology may vary this month, but the trend is cooler days with fewer flowers. Leaves and… Read more

• Gardening with Native Plants: Late Summer July 31, 2024

  Will August bring mid-summer heat or a transition to fall? Dry weeks or more rainy days? Gardening tasks include harvesting seeds from plants that bloomed… Read more

• Art on View: Illustrating Wisconsin's Wild Lakes June 30, 2024

  “Illustrating Wisconsin’s Wild Lakes,” original illustrations by Rebecca Jabs for John Bates’s book Wisconsin’s Wild Lakes, will be on view in the Steinhauer Trust Gallery… Read more

• Gardening with Native Plants: Midsummer June 30, 2024

  Native plant gardens take on a summer look this month. Typically, July brings the warmest average temperatures of the year, peaking at an average high… Read more

• Gardening with Native Plants: Garden Care June 3, 2024

  With the spring plant sale “season” behind us and new native plants taking root in gardens, we turn to long-term care of these areas. Although… Read more

• How to Create a Beautiful Pollinator Garden that Supports Butterflies and Bees May 30, 2024

  “Traditional yards with pristine lawns and few plants act as ecological deserts. However, it doesn’t have to be this way. Installing a pollinator garden is… Read more

• Gardening with Native Plants: May Flowers May 1, 2024

  Wisconsin spring is in full swing in May and change is everywhere – budding, germination, decomposition, emergence, migration, fresh new growth, and warmth. We welcome… Read more

• What's in Bloom? April 8, 2024

  This is a selective list of popular blooming horticultural plants in Longenecker Horticultural Gardens (LHG) and native plants in the Wisconsin Native Plant Garden (WNPG)… Read more

• Appreciating the 2023 Volunteers April 1, 2024

  The Arboretum is a gift from past generations to the present, and in the present we pass on this gift by stewarding the land for… Read more

• Gardening with Native Plants: Spring Changes April 1, 2024

  April can be a month of all-too-rapid spring growth or all-too-slow development in our gardens and landscapes. Often, the month brings both as temperatures and… Read more

• Land Care Report: Growing Native Plants for Restoration February 29, 2024

  An old greenhouse, which has not been used to grow plants in several years, occupies the south-facing section of the Arboretum’s lab building, east of… Read more

• Gardening with Native Plants: Rain Gardens February 29, 2024

  March is a month of change – from winter to spring, from cool temperatures to warmer, from frozen soil to early mud season. So far, winter… Read more

• Gardening with Native Plants: Short Gardens January 30, 2024

  February falls in the middle of winter but often brings early hints of seasonal change – softening ice and snow, more daylight, and warmer winter days. We still have time for garden planning, imagining changes and additions to our gardens, and making plant orders. Read more

• Gardening with Native Plants: Planning Season January 3, 2024

  During January, gardens are typically quiet, snow-covered, chilly, and dormant. It is an inviting time to envision additions and changes to your garden, consider adding… Read more

• Gardening with Native Plants: Gardener’s Bookshelf November 30, 2023

  Holding the winter solstice, December is a dark and quiet month. It is the first month of meteorological winter, when average daily high temperatures… Read more

• Gardening with Native Plants: Subdued Landscapes October 30, 2023

  This month brings shorter days, low sun angles, frost, cold rain, wind, and low cloud cover. The vivid colors of October are replaced by the… Read more

• Gardening with Native Plants: October Changes Everything September 28, 2023

  While every month heralds some change in our gardens and landscapes, October brings transformation. Leaves and temperatures fall, animals may begin hibernation, migrating birds depart… Read more

• Gardening with Native Plants: Silphium Summer August 29, 2023

  During the past month, the Arboretum and the Madison area have experienced extreme or severe drought. Apparently unaffected by the dry conditions, the four Silphium… Read more

• Gardening with Native Plants: Summer Bees July 3, 2023

  In Madison, July is the warmest (on average) and the second wettest (on average) month of the year. Extreme heat and significant drought can also… Read more

• Land Care Report: Skunk Cabbage Wetlands and Winter Restoration Progress May 16, 2023

  Winter and early spring of 2023 were an exciting time for the land care crew and their oak savanna and wetland brush clearing projects. In… Read more