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Spice Up Your Garden with Ornamental Peppers

Looking to add a pop of color to your garden? Ornamental peppers, a showy annual with colorful foliage and fruits, can add color and a whimsical aesthetic to your backyard. Peppers are becoming increasingly popular as ornamental plants for home gardens. The fruits are actually safe to eat, but the flavor and heat can make…

Be Inspired: Plant More

Save the Earth. It’s an inspiring but daunting call to action. In a world where time and resources seem to be more scarce, it’s hard to think about what you can do to help. However, every small action has a ripple effect. Plant More. Use Less. Go Outside. Three small actions that can lead to big…

Insiders Guide to a Cool Summer Visit

Our water lilies love St. Louis summers, but the rest of us probably wilt at the idea of spending too much time outside on a hot day. Don’t let the heat keep you from stopping by your favorite botanical garden to experience beautiful summer blooms. Here’s our insiders guide to keeping cool during your next…

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…

Be Inspired: Use Less

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…