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

• 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: 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

• Eastern Monarch Population Decreased in Winter 2023–24 February 8, 2024

  “Every year, World Wildlife Fund (WWF)–Mexico, in collaboration with the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas in Mexico and the WWF-TELMEX Telcel Foundation Alliance, monitors… 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: 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: 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

• ­­Celebrate Citizen Science Month April 3, 2023

  April is Citizen Science Month! Join the UW–Madison Arboretum to celebrate citizen and community science projects and the volunteers who help create knowledge about our… Read more

• Gardening with Native Plants: Early Flowers April 3, 2023

  April brings many transitions in the garden: temperatures rising, days lengthening, buds breaking, animals and insects emerging, seeds germinating, and more gardening. The land comes… Read more

• Monarch Winter 2022–2023 Population Numbers Released March 21, 2023

  On March 21, 2023, the World Wildlife Fund-Telmex Telcel Foundation Alliance (WWF) and the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas in Mexico (CONANP),… Read more

• Gardening with Native Plants: Flowers for Spring and Early Summer March 1, 2023

  Spring arrives this month, with meteorological spring on March 1 and astronomical spring (the equinox) on March 20. The meteorological season marks the beginning of… Read more

• Gardening with Native Plants: Halfway to Spring January 30, 2023

  February is usually snowy and cold but always the shortest wintry month. Thawing and increasing daylength hint at the end of winter and the beginning… Read more

• Gardening with Native Plants: The Latest Asters August 30, 2022

  September brings the end of the flowering season as fall arrives in native plant gardens. A few flowers may linger into October, but this month… Read more

• Gardening with Native Plants: Summer Shift August 1, 2022

  August brings mostly warm days, and perhaps subtle cooler hints of fall. It can be a rainy month, or a time when dry conditions deepen. Read more

• Director's Note: Migratory Monarchs Added to IUCN Red List as Endangered Species August 1, 2022

  I spent much of the last week of July talking to reporters about the recent announcement from the International Union for the Conservation of… Read more