Enriching lives through beauty, education, and the arts.
We’ve had unseasonably high temperatures here in Wisconsin for much of October and November.
Because of this, we have plants that are blooming because they’ve convinced themselves that it’s spring. To quote our very own Michael Jesiolowski, Director of Horticulture.
In the garden we can find Rhododendrons, Irises, and the lone daffodil wondering where the rest of its friends are. A lot of times, this can happen because of stressful conditions throughout its growing season. We were pretty dry toward the end of the summer and through the fall, so that contributes to drought conditions for these plants who are just trying to grow and stay strong!
Pictured: iris sibirica (Iris flower)
In our lone daffodil’s case, it was planted quite close to an evergreen Taxus shrub and that created enough insulation to keep it warm enough to think it was time to bloom! The same can be said about our irises. However, the irises are planted near a building that puts out just enough heat for our little pals to wake up early.
Pictured: Narcissus Pseudonarcissus (Daffodil Flower)
When early blooming happens, it means that we potentially get less blooms in the spring for certain plants. Specifically, the woody stemmed plants who grow thick stems like rhododendrons. This doesn’t kill them, thankfully. Flowers that are native to Wisconsin or hardy (like our other perennial pals) are resilient, so they’ll survive like nature does. But we won’t see them until the spring after as long as next winter isn’t warm like it has been!
However, on the other side of this crazy weather, November has been unseasonably cold. Because of this, we have broad leaved evergreen shrubs like the Rhododendrons who are getting hit on every end being too dry, too hot, too cold, everything in the book just like us Wisconsinites, but just like us people, plants adapt to the weather too. When rhododendrons get too cold, they curl their leaves inward to avoid direct sunlight to combat evaporation. This phenomenon is called thermotropism.
Pictured: Rhododendron
Spring plants blooming in October and November has been happening all over the Midwestern U.S this year according to David Stevens at the UW Longenecker Horticultural Garden, and Markis Hill in Kansas City where they found their Lilacs were having a second blooming cycle, so they got to smell that sweet scent one more time this year. This was due to extra wet conditions during the growing season that caused a bacterial blight known as; pseudomonas syringae. This, coupled with a rather extreme spectrum of weather all summer long and into the fall period when plants are supposed to be going dormant has contributed to all the right conditions for the plants to have some screwy growth patterns.
All photo credits: Marsha Mood Photography
Sources used:
Stevens, David. “Spring in October? Why Some Lilacs Are Blooming Now.” UW Arboretum, arboretum.wisc.edu/news/arboretum-news/spring-in-october-why-some-lilacs-are-blooming-now/. Accessed 4 Dec. 2024.
Hill, Markis. “Did You See Your Lilac Blooming in Fall? Here’s Why That’s Not Your Imagination.” The Kansas City Star, 22 Nov. 2024, www.kansascity.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/kc-gardens/article295623484.html.
If you’ve been to the Holiday light show here at Rotary Botanical Gardens in the past you’ve probably seen the strings of dazzling lights from the top of the tallest trees in the garden.
I’m sure you’ve wondered how they get up there. I know I sure have. I’ve been to the light show before, I’ve seen these lights up in the trees and streaming down like waterfalls. And everyone I’ve asked is always saying, “How’d they get up there?” Well boy do I have news for you!
Archery.
We have a volunteer named John. John uses a bow and arrow with blunted tip, and shoots fishing line attached to a weight up into the trees. Then the other volunteers string the lights up and that’s where they lay. The bow he uses is small without much weight behind it, (think of a children’s bow!) so there isn’t much force behind the blunted arrows being shot into the trees. Good thing too, we wouldn’t want anyone to be unsafe!
Photo credit: Marsha Mood Photography
Using a bow and arrow is such a creative and fascinating approach to a problem one wouldn’t even realize exists unless you work at a Botanical Garden with a Holiday light show. It also makes for such a good conversation of how things operate at the Gardens.
Now, as for how they get them back down, the lights are attached to a bungee cord that our volunteers then use to pull the lights back down with after the show is over. The whole process of taking down the holiday lights takes about 3 months. If you’d like to see how this process works, or even learn how to do it yourself, consider volunteering with us at Rotary Botanical Gardens.
Volunteering with us helps our operations continue running smoothly so that we can keep delivering you the Holiday light show and a beautiful garden year after year! We offer a ton of benefits to our volunteers including appreciation events, and the chance to be a part of a dynamic team of wonderful people. Plus, real life experience and a chance to do things you may have never been able to do before!
Don’t forget to get your tickets for Rotary Botanical Garden’s Holiday Light Show 2024! You have to come see the lights for yourself. Now that we know how they go up, it’s obvious that no year will ever have them in the same spot adding to the newness of each year! So, keep coming back to see where they show up year after year!
The Holiday Light show at Rotary Botanical Gardens features over 1.6 million lights, a beautiful nighttime winter walk, and lasting memories for everyone involved. So don’t miss out!
I can’t wait to see what we learn next!
If you’d like to volunteer with us, click this link to sign up!
Volunteer | Rotary Botanical Gardens
Don’t forget to buy your tickets for Rotary Botanical Gardens Holiday Light Show 2024!
2024 Rotary Botanical Gardens Holiday Light Show | Janesville, Wisconsin
The pumpkin program is a staple here at Rotary Botanical Gardens. It gives children in the surrounding schools a chance to make a mess, get outside, and learn something new all at the same time. From counting seeds to identifying leaves, the pumpkin program offers opportunities for children to grow like the little orange seed filled squashes they are.
When we have the pumpkin program, we start the day out by dividing into the classroom groups and the prairie tour groups. It’s really just to determine who goes on the tour first and who gets to learn about pumpkins first.
A lot of our educational volunteers are retired teachers whose passion for molding today’s youth shines through every word, every action, and every smile. Barb in particular is an encyclopedia of nature and gardening knowledge. We at Rotary Botanical Gardens are so lucky to have volunteers like her!
After everyone is situated into where they’re going, the tours and the program kick off. Inside the classroom here at Rotary Botanical Gardens, the education volunteers teach the children to measure the circumference of a pumpkin, they figure out how many seeds it has, this is the math part of the program. (How fun!). They also teach them about the different varieties of pumpkin, (did you know there are hundreds of varieties? This author didn’t.)
Meanwhile, the prairie tour is in full swing. Rotary Botanical Gardens is working toward a prairie restoration project. Which means we have a field that is filled with native plants that come back every year to ensure native plants and wildlife have a place to go that is as close to their home as it can be. Our education volunteers take these classes through the weeds (literally!) to show them how to identify the different plants that can be found in our field. They go through how the root systems of prairie plants are longer than one would think, and deeper in the ground to be able to reach water in times of drought.
The pumpkin program is run every year in October, and we take donations of pumpkins every year too! Thank you to all our volunteers and thank to the schools in our Janesville community who keep the program running. We love seeing the kids here every year and we can’t wait for next year!
All Photos were taken by Rotary Botanical Gardens Marketing team.
Program provides reduced admission for SNAP recipients
We’re thrilled to share that Rotary Botanical Gardens is now part of the Museums for All program network. This initiative, supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and managed by the Association of Children’s Museums (ACM), is dedicated to making cultural and educational experiences accessible to everyone.
Through Museums for All, families receiving food assistance (SNAP) benefits can now explore our beautiful gardens for just $3 per person, with up to four people per group, by showing their SNAP Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card.
Please note that this special rate applies to daily admission only and does not include programs or special events like the Holiday Light Show. This program is a perfect fit with the garden’s longstanding commitment to inclusivity and community-centered values.
At Rotary Botanical Gardens, we believe in the power of nature and education to bring people together. Our internationally themed, 20-acre garden in Janesville, Wisconsin, has always been about more than just plants; it’s about fostering a sense of community and ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to connect with the natural world.
By joining Museums for All, we’re continuing our legacy of community engagement and social responsibility. We’re proud to be part of a national movement that includes over 1,300 institutions, from botanical gardens to art museums and science centers, all working to broaden access and enrich lives.
We invite you to spread the word and experience the beauty and educational opportunities our garden has to offer. For more details about Museums for All and to plan your visit, please visit our Admissions page.
We look forward to welcoming you and your family to Rotary Botanical Gardens, where we celebrate the beauty of nature and the spirit of community.
Hi! My name is Samantha Mundy
I’m the summer intern this year! I’m currently pursuing a degree in Horticulture with a concentration in Public Horticulture from Purdue University.
I’m from Indiana, and it’s nice, but I’ve lived there my whole life, and I wanted the experience of living out-of-state before I graduate. Wisconsin is a beautiful state, and it’s similar enough to home that the move wasn’t too jarring.
I’m passionate about plants, of course, but I also love animals! Growing up, my family always had pets, which definitely impacted me. I have a lot of fond memories of chasing lizards in Florida and listening for birds on the porch at home. The animals got me interested in the plants, not the other way around!
Speaking of birds, I’ve started carrying around a Birds of Wisconsin book with me so I can check off any new bird species I see, and I’m taking maybe too many pictures of the critters around the gardens. Everyone tells me I’ll get tired of seeing the deer so close up, but I don’t think I will!
I’ve previously worked at the Purdue Horticulture Greenhouse, which was a good jumping off point in terms of what it’s like to work with plants in general, but this job is so much more involved, both in the work I’m doing and the interactions I have with others.
At the greenhouse, I was doing most of my work alone, and now there are people around all the time! That makes the day much more enjoyable. Everyone has been so kind to me and it’s really helped me as I’ve started to get into the rhythm of the work.
I also work for Purdue Dining, which is much more fast-paced but also confirmed my drive to do work that helps people, even if it’s just helping them have a good lunch! After doing this internship for a while, the personal satisfaction of making an enjoyable experience for visitors has proven to have carried over.
The work itself is surprisingly fun, too. It’s been a lot of weeding, planting, and general maintenance, which I’ve found only gets more satisfying as time goes on. Spending so much time digging around in the dirt has also allowed me to indulge in my other hobby: Roly-polies!
I currently have two tanks in my room which I started in January of this year, both with wild-caught individuals from around Purdue and my home. Some of them are orange!
I’ve added a few that I’ve caught here to my tanks, but unfortunately, it looks like the populations around the garden are infected with a virus, so some of the species are off-limits for keeping. Still, I like looking for them when I’m weeding and admiring all the different colors.
In addition to my typical work around the gardens, I’m also working on a project involving the prairie next to the gardens. I’ve been recording the species present currently, and I’ll eventually put together a list of plants that we should plant there, whether they’re new species entirely or were planted there originally in 1995 and have since died out.
I’ll also be noting what plants in the prairie are invasive and how we could potentially get rid of them. It’s been a pretty big undertaking, but I’m having a lot of fun with it!
Even in the short time I’ve been here, I’ve learned so much about what it means to work in a garden like this and how dedicated everyone is to making sure guests have an enjoyable and educational experience. I love knowing that what I do will have an impact on people, and I’m excited to be a part of this great group of people!