2009 Macy's Flower Show

If you live in the Chicago area, this clock needs no explanation. Encompassing an entire city block bounded by Washington, State, Wabash, and Randolph Streets downtown, is the beautiful, historic Marshall Field's Building, now Chicago's flagship Macy's store.

Macy's invited Chicago-area garden bloggers for a sneak preview of their annual flower show at the State Street store. Accompanied by My Skinny Garden and Mr.Brown Thumb, we were given a private tour of the show by our guides - Macy's Marisa Reeves, Media Relations Manager, and Jon Jones, Visual Director, along with Todd Pope, Branch Manager for Green View in Oswego, IL. Green View Companies, a landscape, nursery, and design group based near Peoria, IL is the floral partner for this year's show. Todd and Jon described some of the work that went on behind the scenes getting the plants ready for the show, and it was absolutely fascinating.

The 2009 show, themed Dream in Color, is free, and runs from Sunday, April 5th through Sunday, April 19th. If you live in the Chicago area, you won't want to miss it.

A large percentage of plants grown for the show will thrive in our zone 5 climate.

Most of the floral displays are located on the first floor on the State Street side of the store - down the main aisle, around the middle fountain, the bridge across from the fountain, in six of the store's windows, and in about every nook and cranny they could find a place for just one more beautiful vignette.

Pink flamingos are a recurring theme, everything from kitchy plastic flamingos in the display in the famous Walnut Room,

to these two amazing flamingos constructed out of 5,000 pink Kalanchoe flowers.

Todd and Jon described the painstaking process, which included individually removing every leaf.

Near the middle fountain, you'll find this table manned by University of Illinois Extension Master Gardeners, partnering again this year with Macy's to take visitors on tours on a first-come, first-served basis every Thursday through Sunday at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m.

Now that the Chicago Garden Show is over, it's time for another flower fix, since little is blooming around here outdoors.

If you've been to Macy's State Street store before, I hope you didn't miss this late-1800's mosaic atrium dome by Louis Comfort Tiffany. If you did, go back and see it! The dome covers 6000 square feet and is the largest Tiffany mosaic in existence.

We got to peek behind the curtain! It was like visiting Oz.

Ah, springtime!

There were flowers as far as the eye could see.

I can hardly wait to plant out those hydrangea cuttings I overwintered in the basement!

We loved this colorful combination of blooms and glass.

More Flamingos! These were amazing, constructed around the beautiful columns in the main aisle.

Thank you Marisa, Todd, and Jon for taking time from your busy schedules to preview the show for us. It was truly awesome getting this behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to put on a show of this magnitude.

If you're in the Chicago area in the next couple of weeks, stop in at Macy's State Street Store, and tell 'em the garden bloggers sent you!

Spring Fling Update - Chicago Botanic Garden

Due to popular request, the Spring Fling schedule has been revised, with the Chicago Botanic Garden visit moved from Thursday to Friday so more participants can attend.

Please visit the Chicago Spring Fling website to learn more.

If you've never been to Chicago Botanic Garden, you won't want to miss it. If you've been before, you can't wait to go back.

Thank you Botanic Garden staff, who have been so accommodating and welcoming, and for all you've done on our behalf. We appreciate you.

Pass-Along Plants

My first perennial garden many years ago was made up entirely of pass-along plants. An elderly neighbor who was also an avid gardener frequently invited me into her garden. We'd walk the paths of lovingly-tended shade borders tucked into corners of her yard, and I'd admire her sunny borders and their succession of blooms. Every time she invited me to visit, spring through fall, she sent me home with divisions and seedlings from her beds.

I was a young stay-at-home mom on a tight budget, and thanks to her generosity, before I knew it I had beds full of pink and white phlox and dianthus, yellow marguerite, sundrops, and daylilies, dainty feverfew and Johnny Jump-ups, ferns, hostas, and assorted other pretties. I will always remember how her generosity fed my life-long interest in gardening. Many years and houses later, I still have divisions in my garden from the first hosta she gave me in a place of honor front and center in our garden. She called them August lilies, and I always think of her when they bloom. Lots of things in my life and in the world have changed since then, but the generosity of gardeners sharing plants and information hasn't.

This geranium, which stayed green (er. . . red,) all winter, is so pretty with the fresh spring growth contrasting with the older foliage. While most of the other perennials in the garden are just breaking dormancy, this pass-along is the showiest perennial in the garden at the moment, and will continue the show when it blooms in May.
A client was enlarging one of her patios in late November last year. The contractors, at her direction, dug out the plants from the border around the patio, piling them up in a corner of the garden with nice, fat, healthy rootballs intact for us to choose whatever we wanted to take home to our own gardens. Although I was sorely tempted by all the beautiful grasses, they wouldn't have been happy in our shady garden. But the epimedium will like it here.
Celandine poppy seedlings were the gift of another client last July, and I'm happy to see they survived being transplanted in the dog days of summer. Initially they made their displeasure known, but seem to be settling in well now.

I've started a veritable forest of sedums - mostly Autumn Joy, from the garden of another client who suggested we might want to take some pieces home when we cut hers back last fall. I'm not sure how well they'll do here with so little sun, but since they were free, I don't mind experimenting. These cuttings were stuck in the ground in late fall. I didn't expect much rooting that late in the season, but sedum cuttings root so quickly and easily, most of them are back this spring. Tough, drought-tolerant plants, even if they flop or don't bloom in our shady bed, they'll fill in some previously-empty space in the dry shade and tangle of roots under our silver maples.
Several stokesias came from the client expanding her patio. I've wanted to experiment with stokesias here. But with so little sun, a limited budget, and so many plants on the list, it would likely have been a long time before I tried them since I think they prefer more sun than our garden provides for optimal blooming. These went into a spot that gets about three hours of morning and afternoon sun. If they don't bloom well here, they can always be passed along to a sunnier garden. Other pass-alongs received late last fall were hurriedly heeled into the veggie garden until I could decide where to put them this spring. I needed to get them out of the veggie garden early since they were in the back of the garden where the trellis needed to go, and I wanted the trellis up before planting the peas. As soon as the sun had thawed the frozen soil, I started moving the plants, some of which were literally piled on top of each other when I hastily heeled them in late last fall. The last of them (or so I thought,) was moved last week, just in time to plant the peas.

Imagine my surprise when this sprouted in a row of peas! Now, I know it's been awhile since I've had a veggie garden, but I still remember what pea seedlings look like, and it's certainly not like this:

I had to disturb the already-sprouting-underground-peas in order to get this pass-along out of the veggie garden. It was well worth risking a few peas, which can easily be replanted, in order to rescue this buried treasure. I was pleased to find the substantial root ball still healthy and firm at the bottom of the raised bed, and happy it survived the abuse I heaped upon it when I accidentally piled some other pass-alongs on top of it to wait out the winter in the veggie bed. This one was large enough to be divided into four plants. You can't tell what a substantial plant it really is, since most of it was sprouting underground with several inches to go before reaching the surface. I'm about 99.9% certain its a pulmonaria, though I don't know what cultivar it is. I didn't know what it was when I brought it home, since it had already been cut back for the winter. Sometimes part of the fun of pass-alongs is figuring out what they are!

I'm grateful for the generosity of gardening friends and clients who've shared the bounty of their overflowing gardens with me, and enjoy sharing my own seedlings, divisions, and cuttings with them, in the rich tradition of a sweet elderly neighbor, my first gardening friend outside my family. I think of her often when another gardener shares a plant from their garden with me or I share one with them, when a surprise pulmonaria comes up for light and air, or when I can figure out what cultivar an unnamed, treasured pass-along really is. And I always think of her in the waning days of summer when the August lilies bloom.

YES WE CAN!

The Obamas will eat the view! Today on the first day of spring, Michelle Obama will be joined by a group of third graders to break ground on a kitchen garden to be grown on the White House lawn.

The Washington Post says Today, first lady Michelle Obama will host a groundbreaking for a White House kitchen garden on the South Lawn. She will be joined by students from Bancroft Elementary in Northwest Washington, , whose participation in the project will continue past today, as they help with planting in the coming weeks and harvesting later this year.

The 1,100-square-foot garden will include 55 kinds of vegetables, including peppers, spinach and, yes, arugula. (The selection is a wish list put together by White House chefs.) There will also be berries, herbs and two hives for honey that will be tended by a White House carpenter who is also a beekeeper. The chefs will use the produce to feed the first family, as well as for state dinners and other official events.

The White House will use organic seedlings, as well as organic fertilizers and organic insect repellents. The garden will be near the tennis courts and be visible to passersby on the street. The whole Obama family will be involved in tending the garden, White House spokeswoman Katie McCormick Lelyveld said.

Although considerably smaller, our new veggie garden is official! This week I planted peas, radishes, and a few of the more cold-tolerant of the gazillions of varieties of lettuce seeds I have. AND the life-changing garlic I planted last fall is sprouting!

I can't say for sure which garden I'm more excited about. Obviously I'm very excited about my own little kitchen garden, and I hope it may even inspire neighbors to consider planting their own small plot. Except for the last five years I've always had a veggie garden. Having one here now, however small, is better than Christmas.

The White House garden has far more inspiration potential than mine. Growing an organic kitchen garden on the White House lawn could inspire millions in their own backyards, inspire teachers and children to plant gardens in their schoolyards, and further energize the community garden, locavore, organic farming, and environmental movements, as well as helping independent nurseries who still have time to start more veggies, order more seeds, and plan kitchen garden workshops and promotions to energize their businesses during this economic downturn.

Thank you, thank you to everyone who signed petitions encouraging the Obamas to Eat the View. Today is a shining example of how we really can make a difference, and I couldn't be more thrilled.

This is Your Life

This is your host Ralph Edwards speaking, live from Hollywood Theatre. We've had a secret camera standing by, waiting to capture this special occassion. We're here to celebrate one of the greatest moments in the March garden.

Your good friend Garden Girl remembers you from way back last April when you first came to live with her, and she conspired with us to make this day possible. In one fateful moment both your lives were changed as she chose you out of all the hellebores in the nursery. She cared for you lovingly as you put down roots in her garden.

And now, we have a wonderful surprise. Millions from coast to coast are gathered live with us today. Ms. Hellebore Bloom, THIS is your life!

Sunday, March 15th: Bloom Day morning dawned frosty and cold. The world could see you were ready to pop. You knew your time to shine was coming soon. As word went out you were about to bloom, the internets watched in anticipation. They noticed another happy surprise, your sibling, Bud. Come on out Bud, the world is waiting to meet you!

Monday, March 16th was a milder day. Just look how far you've come! As you begin to open, anticipation builds. You've already brought so much pleasure. Millions are waiting for your beauty to unfold.

Tuesday dawned sunny and mild. Although the Garden Girl was busy with her class, you weren't far away in her thoughts. She knew on such a beautiful day you might decide to bloom.

Such a humble thing, you open your petals without fanfare, gazing down with gratitude at the soil that sustains you. Your unassuming beauty is tonic for a troubled world. If you're anything like the blooms that came before you last spring, you'll stick around until fall, making the world a better and more beautiful place.

So Ms. Hellebore Bloom, this is your life! Soon other hellebores will join you, but you'll always be the first. May you sprinkle your beautiful offspring throughout the garden to bloom for posterity. May you live long and prosper, bringing beauty and happiness for years to come.