Archives

• Gardening with Native Plants: Shrubs with Early Blooms February 27, 2025

  March often brings the end of winter, the beginning of spring, or simply the variability of this seasonal transition. Longer days, increasing sun… Read more

• Gardening with Native Plants: Plants for a Garden Full of Life February 4, 2025

  During February, winter’s grip begins to loosen. Although Madison’s average daily temperature for the month is in the mid-20s, the average high temperature… Read more

• Gardening with Native Plants: Planning for Pollinators January 7, 2025

  In our Wisconsin climate, January is an unlikely month for actual gardening, but seeding and planning for the new season is underway at the Arboretum. Read more

• Gardening with Native Plants: Winter Reading December 2, 2024

  December is the first month of meteorological winter and brings the shortest days of the year, often with cold and snow. Gardens are quiet this… Read more

• Land Care Report: The Stages of Restoring Valuable Oak Savannas November 4, 2024

  When people think of Arboretum restorations, they likely envision prairies, especially Curtis and Greene Prairies. That makes sense, given the historical importance of Curtis and… Read more

• Gardening with Native Plants: Autumn Care and Reflections November 4, 2024

  Late fall arrives in November, with colder days, possible frosts, shifting winds, shorter daylength, and neutral colors. Plants go into dormancy; some still hold seeds. Read more

• Gardening with Native Plants: Addition and Division October 2, 2024

  October is the heart of autumn as fall color develops and peaks in woodlands and prairies, on trees, shrubs and grasses. Our garden tasks include… Read more

• 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 page offers a selective list of bloom times for popular plants in Longenecker Horticultural Gardens (LHG) and 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