Whimsy in Plants: The Chicago Flower & Garden Show

I have the pleasure of once again working at the Chicago Flower & Garden Show.  I have so far managed not to buy too much from our fellow vendors, but I still have a couple of days to go. This year the gardens are smaller, but still are filled with interesting plants and intriguing gardening ideas.  The theme is sports, which gets expressed in a number of ways.  However, this is my favorite:

Alice?  Paging Alice!

A winning shot?

The Illinois Orchid Society's exhibit is entitled 'A Curious Croquet-Ground'.  Christy Webber, Aquascape, and Rich's Foxwillow Pines all do wonderful gardens, but I love the outsized imagination of this.  Maybe I have orchids on the brain, but I am very charmed by this garden. Where else but at a garden show can you do big, fantastic whimsy?  I find the garden show gives me a fresh look at how to work with plants and spaces, not to mention a burst of flowers to get me through the winter. There's still another weekend of the show, so if you can, stop by and soak in a little spring.

A Taste of the Tropics

March is plodding along, so a friend and I got a taste of the tropics a few days ago at the annual open house at Orchids by Hausermann in Villa Park.  Wow!!  I'll be the first to tell you that I'm not a huge orchid fan.  I love the unusual ones, not the cattleyas nor the phalaenopsis that you see everywhere. I've killed a couple that I bought on a whim at the orchid show at the Chicago Botanic Garden.  I don't do well with fussy plants. 

That is a lot of phalaenopsis, my friends.

However, put me in acres of greenhouses in March and I think it goes to my head.  I came home with a gardenia and a paphiopedilum.  Now that I have a sunny window, we'll see if I kill these.  The gardenia is a sentimental plant for me.  I had one in a corsage for a high school dance and somehow managed to keep one alive and blooming in my college dorm room.  We'll see what happens with this one.  The paph is a lady slipper-type orchid.  I have instructions.  I have promised it I will try very hard not to kill it.  So far the cats are not eating them, so here's hoping for survival!

All those plastic bottles hold hundreds of thousands of tiny baby orchids

A fountain of orchids

An unusual green one



A nifty white one

A stunning paphiopedilum!



Vibrations of Spring

Perhaps it is because I'm a gardener that it seems I can feel the seasons, almost from my feet to the top of my head. 

Now, at the beginning of March, there's almost a low thrum in the air as the days grow longer.  Birds are returning - redwing blackbirds have been spotted and our resident redtail hawk just flew overhead.  I think it's a juvenile male as the breast feathers are very white and he's a little on the small side.  For a redtail, that is.  The squirrels are chasing each other in that seductive squirrel way and the bunnies might be doing the bunny hop, but I haven't spotted them yet.  I'm sure they are waiting for a nice romantic moonlit night.  The rabbits have left me plenty of fertilizer.  It's not just the excellent soil that causes everything here to get bigger, I swear the secret is well-aged bunny poo, too.

A stroll around the garden, and I can almost feel the twigs vibrating under my fingers.  Buds are swelling, elongating, and some beginning to crack.  Yesterday, the elm tree at work seemed to be dotted with thousands of chocolate chips - big fat juicy buds!  The forsythia is practically hopping up and down in excitement, but my witchhazel is being stubborn.  The ones at The Morton Arboretum have already cracked, but mine isn't budging.  No sir.  It doesn't care that the daffodils at its feet have poked inquisitive heads up about an inch.  My arborist friend tells me the silver maples are running with sap already, and we know the boxwood is raring to go. 

Yes, it's cold.  Yes, we'll probably get some more snow, but it will melt quickly and be a memory.  The soil crunches in the morning, but it means I can go out and cut down my raggedy grasses without worrying about compaction. 

Underneath that crusty surface, can't you just feel the earth tremble?

Lawn, Lawn, Everywhere?

This winter, a colleague and I have been batting around thoughts of lawn.  Specifically, less lawn and more lawn alternatives.  There are about 46.5 million acres of it in the U. S. Why must a lawn be a carpet of felted green? Although I understand the appeal of a swath of soft turf to run across barefoot and breezy, I can't justify the time, energy, and resources to maintain it.  I'm not comfortable dumping chemicals on a monoculture just so I can keep up with the Joneses.  Our lawn is a mishmash of clover, types of grass, dandelions, violets, and whatever else feels like growing in it.  I like bees.  They love clover.  It's all good.

Curious about the lawn phenomenon, I researched.

Turns out lawn was a status symbol.  American lawns were influenced by the sweeps of mown turf on English estates that required a staff of gardeners with scythes (and maybe some sheep) to maintain.  The English gentry had enjoyed turf since around the 17th century when close-shorn grass became the rage. That lovely bent grass was perfect for croquet, tennis, or just a post prandial stroll.  The wealthy had the time and the money to plant a verdant patch.  Lawnmowers weren't really commonly available until the 1870s or so.  The popularity of golf and lawn bowling also play a role in the development of turf grasses for the home gardener.  With post industrialization spurring a call for greenery, lawns sort of snowballed from there. For more information, you might want to try this article.

Now for the alternatives, of which there are many.  The first step is to determine what you use your lawn for.  Is it for sports, play, sun bathing, or just a glorified groundcover?  There are many plants that can handle periodic foot traffic that don't require much maintenance and more are being developed.  Take thyme, for instance.  Low growing, fragrant, pretty flowers, and you can walk on it.  What's not to love?  There are also a number of alternate grasses that stay short without mowing.  The movement is growing to create usable spaces that require much less resources.  Check out the Lawn Reform Coalition for a wealth of ideas.

Also, as part of the Sustainable Sites Initiative, the Landscape for Life website has tons of resources on making your patch of paradise more earth friendly, including a nice section on lawns. 

I realize that Americans are passionate about their lawns and for some it is a competitive sport.  However, I think that we can maintain a balance between green grass and less impact on the environment.

Snowdrops Mean Spring

Galanthus nivalis poking up their beautiful little heads

The snow is mostly gone and today it is officially spring, at least in my book.  The snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) are up!  They may take some time to fully open as it seems likely to get colder in the next few days.  Doesn't matter.  A plant has sprung from the soil, therefore it is spring.

I love my four seasons, but I have planted snowdrops, witchhazel, and early crocus just to break out of the winter doldrums.  How fabulous is it to have something actively growing in February?  We've had our thaw so the tree buds are swelling and friends have spotted cedar waxwings.  There's a small group of robins who have stuck around.  I expect they will polish off the last of the crabapples on the neighbor's tree pretty soon. 

Make a point of getting outside and snooping around the garden.  You'll be surprised what's waking up. The days are longer and balmy breezes aren't far behind.

The Korean boxwood flowers are fattening up!

Tis the Season of Catalogs

Ah, February!  Two feet of snow on the ground, subzero temperatures, and lo, what appears in the mail?  Garden porn. 

Look what came in the mail!

We grow some of our vegetables from seed, but since I teach the occasional park district class, I've collected a few more catalogs along the way.  For me, the most exciting is wee one in front, and it has nothing to do with veggies. The Morton Arboretum's Plant Catalog.  One of the privileges of membership is the Arb's plant sale.  I think I've volunteered for it almost 12 years now.  The folks at the Arb do a really wonderful job of picking out hard to find plants and natives for us discerning collectors.  In addition to the pre-order catalog, there is a tent sale the weekend of Arbor Day.  You can find more information on their website. Usually around the first of April they will post the tent sale list for us plant geeks to salivate over.

Catalogs give me the chance to pour over the pretty pictures and daydream about pole beans, multi-hued heirloom tomatoes, antique herbs, unusual perennials, and trees I don't have room for.  Oh, the possibilities!  Fortunately, my husband ignores my zealous circling and orders what he wants with a couple of new things thrown in.  I have an iron will power on woody plants combined with a relatively small lot.  Still, it never hurts to dream.

Snow Love! Even Two Feet of It



The redbud casts a bewitching shadow


Snowpocalypse, or whatever you want to call the blizzard of February 2011, has dumped about two feet of snow on us.  After digging ourselves out and the sore arms that went with it, I'm still in love with snow.  Why?  I love the sight, sound, and feel - all of it.  I"m an addict, I'll admit.  As a gardener, I did some research on why snow is good for us.

1). Snow insulates.  It keeps soil temperatures from fluctuating, so those borderline plants have a better shot at making it.  In general, under a blanket of snow, soil temperatures can be as much as two degrees warmer for each inch of snow accumulation as compared to air temperature. That can be quite a bit warmer, especially when our night time temps can be in the negatives. It also means that perennials will be less likely to heave out of the ground in our usual freeze/thaw cycle.

2). Snow conserves soil moisture.  Our evergreens, especially, benefit from moist winter soils.  It keeps them from losing too much water through their needles and becoming damaged. 

3). Snowmelt percolates slowly through the soil, gradually watering our plants.

4). The landscape looks pretty gorgeous in new fallen snow.  I find that our huge spruces and pines take center stage in snow.  Winter sun casts amazing new shadows on snow.  All those perennials I left up take on new dimension, especially the grasses.

Will I get sick of it pretty soon?  Probably.  Yet, my trees will be nicely watered in early spring!

So crisp, so clean

That hydrangea is really about three feet high
 and finally something covered the darn gas meter

Somewhere under all that are the retaining walls. 
The Stanwell Perpetual roses on either side of the steps will
 be very happy with the snow melt!