Floral Prisms

Upon returning from any grand trip such as this, everyone asks: HOW WAS YOUR TRIP?! I long to wiggle out of answering this question. I’d like to say so much, but these questions typically occur between volleyball games as you line up to take a sip of water. How can I say something thoughtful

The radish: that beaming red crunchy and spicy lunch snack. Like many of the “modern” vegetables pumped out to us at “modern” grocery stores, the real story is much more diverse. There are in fact many radishes of all shapes, sizes, and colors, and they aren’t all just for munching or adding to salads.

The plant world has numerous, amazing examples of resilience. Cycads, for example, are fascinating ancient plants thought to have evolved from ferns. Having been around for nearly 300 million years, they are models of longevity and hardiness. Cycas circinalis at the UWM Greenhouse. The UWM Greenhouse is home to a number of cycads, with

By Rosalie Robison Many know Beatrix Potter as the author and illustrator of famous children’s books like The Tale of Peter Rabbit, but there’s another side to her. Before she became known for popular children’s characters like Peter Rabbit and Jemima Puddle Duck, she drew hundreds of fungi and experimented with growing mushroom spores.

Crazy fact: Nearly one of every ten species of flowering plants is an orchid. Current tallies have about 28,000 species of orchids (with many, many more hybrids and cultivars), which is twice as many bird species and four times as many mammal species. Another fun fact: vanilla is an orchid, one of the few

It's strawberry season, which in my view officially kicks off the season of fresh fruit--finally! I have issues… with fruit. Up until now only a select few in my close circle have been aware of my…what should I call it: Fruit phobia? Fruit antithesis? Fruit nemesis??? Ron Swanson trying to eat a banana perfectly

Ephemeral: something that lasts for a very short timeFresh: new or recently made, as being not spoiled or not preserved, or as being energized or not tired. Spring is a time like no other. After the utter desperation of winter, we are starved for vibrant life and color. I have heard the season described

The winter cracks our perception of ourselves. The seasons toss us through cycles of wash, rinse, dry, and tumble; every year we get the same treatment even though we sense each stage in a cycle of unique moments. Nature signals familiar patterns if we look, but many of us now live a life of

Inhale the fragrance of coconut geraniums or spicy shell ginger, pop a citrusy kumquat into your mouth, and pretend you’re in the Mediterranean while the snowstorm rages outside. Welcome to the UWM Greenhouse, located on the UW-Milwaukee campus in Wisconsin. I began volunteering at the Greenhouse after becoming a UWM employee in 2018. Before

Getting into my vibe in the desert mountain scrub of SoCal I’m obsessed with peppers. Perhaps it’s because I spent my formative years in the southern California desert. Perhaps it’s because I grew up in southern California AND my favorite band was the Red Hot Chili Peppers (sorry, not sorry). Perhaps I have a

Part of the Eat Your Greens series. See all the delicious ways you can eat your greens! We’re supposed to eat our greens. As the Popeye tune goes, "I'm strong to the finich cause I eats me spinach!” I think greens are fascinating. They are universal: people worldwide use and appreciate greens in the

Part of the Eat Your Greens series. See all the delicious ways you can eat your greens! alliaceous : resembling garlic or onion especially in smell or taste For Wisconsin gardeners, spring is a tumultuous time of year full of excitement and dashed hopes. It’s also a time when little is growing, making the

By Rosalie Robison “There is a low mist in the woods—It is a good day to study lichens."― Henry David Thoreau, A Year in Thoreau’s Journal: 1851 Lichen is life in its most basic form: the precursor to soil and higher plant forms. Lichen arrived on Earth at least 250 million years ago and

It may not seem like much of a plant, but sorrel deserves a chance in any garden. This easy to grow perennial herb requires little maintenance and produces tasty leaves useful in cooking. You may be surprised to learn about the varied uses of this plant and its interesting relatives. Quick Facts Sorrel is

What is a community garden? Before we ask this question, we should ask: What is a community? I had no answer for this until my mother and I began renting plots at Alice’s Garden in Milwaukee's Lindsey Heights neighborhood. Alice’s Garden represents an intersection. Not only is it physically at the center of Milwaukee,