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Building Tomorrow’s Botanists Today

When Monica Carlsen met fourteen-year-old Gabrielle McAuley at the Missouri Botanical Garden’s science open house in the spring, she assumed the teen’s father had talked her into going to the event. As it turns out, it was the other way around. “I made my dad come down here to look at volunteer opportunities,” McAuley said on…

Grow Your Own Salsa Garden

The St. Louis Cardinals are heating up. And if you believe the hype, Matt Carpenter’s secret salsa may have something to do with the team’s summer resurgence. .@MattCarp13 with a new career-high by smashing his 29th home run! WHAT IS IN THAT SALSA!#ItsGottaBeTheSalsa 🔥 pic.twitter.com/pVI4To6eDL — St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) August 5, 2018 This is…

Best Practices for Battling Pests

Gardening can be a gratifying hobby, with rewards in the form of beautiful flowers, lush plants and delicious produce, but it can yield frustrations. For many gardeners, pests are at the top of that list. If you are looking for some ways to deal with insects who are eating plants in your garden, the Kemper…

Plant Profile: Avocado

What is an avocado? Persea americana is an evergreen tree, native to Mexico, Central America and South America. It belongs to Lauraceae, the plant family that also includes cinnamon trees. Avocado trees produce green-skinned, round or pear-shaped fruit containing a single large pit (seed). Botanically speaking, avocado is actually a berry. Its yellow flesh is…

The Garden in 100 Objects: From the Iconic to the Rare

A new exhibit offers a fascinating firsthand look at Garden history through 100 unique objects. Objects help bring history to life, and with nearly 160 years of history behind the Missouri Botanical Garden, rich stories can be found in virtually every specimen, structure, and artifact in the Garden’s diverse collections. For example, the…

Learning by Doing | Research Experiences for Undergraduates

When Kelli Schowalter first visited the Missouri Botanical Garden after moving to St. Louis from Virginia for college, she was not aware of the institution’s vast science and research work. “It’s fascinating,” Schowalter says of the Garden’s internationally renowned research program. A Washington University senior, Schowalter first learned about the science side of the Garden…

Watering Your Plants While You’re Away

Summer has been a scorcher this year in St. Louis. With the excessive heat and little rain, it’s even more important than usual to frequently water your garden. That’s easy enough when you’re at home and able to turn on the hose for your plants every day, but what about when you’re leaving town for…

Bloomsday: The Sunflower+ Project: STL

This summer welcomes the sixth consecutive season of blooming sunflowers to the corner of Warren and 14th Streets in Old North St. Louis, a plot of land that until not long ago was nothing more than a weedy, vacant lot. Today the site not only offers a stunning seasonal display, but also a striking example…

From the Library: Rebuilding the Bateman Book (Part 4)

Conservation work on the Peter H. Raven Library’s copy of The Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala has begun! Follow along as we document this painstaking restoration of one of the largest and grandest volumes in the Garden’s rare book collection. The Peter H Raven Library’s copy of Bateman’s Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala was issued in several parts…

Spotlight on Science: Dr. Jan Salick

A monthly look at the people behind plant science at the Missouri Botanical Garden Dr. Jan Salick Senior Curator of Ethnobotany, William L. Brown Center As an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Jan Salick couldn’t decide on a major, so she took a temporary leave to figure it out while traveling the world. …

Discover Our Sundials

For thousands of years, people have used sundials to tell time. In its simplest form, a sundial uses the position of the sun to cast a shadow and show us the hour of the day. More complex devices even can highlight celestial events such as the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, or winter and summer solstices….

Learning from Dad

Many professionals credit their parents for the inspiration to pursue a particular career. Some may admire their parents’ ability to channel their passions into a profession and seek to follow a similar path. Others may cite the parental encouragement they received to follow their own unique interests. Whatever the circumstances, parental support can be a…