Margarita Cupcakes to Celebrate Cinco de Mayo and the Giant Agave Plant at Garfield Park Conservatory
*If you'd like to receive these blog posts by email, send a message to chowdownchicagoblog@gmail.com with "Subscribe" in the subject line or message.* An agave plant at the Garfield Park Conservatory has grown into a skyscraper. Cinco de Mayo is just around the corner. What other reason do you need to make margarita cupcakes? The “celebrity plant” found in the Desert House section of the Conservatory has been nicknamed Guien, which is short for the plant’s official name, agave guiengola. Guien has shot up to over 20 feet in height, which is very unexpected for this plant that usually only grows to be about 10 feet high. This particular type of agave plant is only found in the wild on a single mountain, Cerro Guiengola, located in Oaxaca, Mexico. Ray Jorgensen, a floriculturist at the Conservatory, recently told Block Club Chicago that Guien is “trying to imitate skyscrapers because she’s in Chicago.” In 2019, an agave americana plant at the Garfield Park Conservatory