By Carol Cichorski, on May 8th, 2017 Yes, there has been a change over the years in my gardening philosophy. Beautiful isn’t enough. Well-behaved is required. My phlox have failed miserably in the well-behaved category. They have been expanding and had now gone well beyond acceptable. Note I said ‘were’ as I have literally spent days extracting them from my large garden. The seeds had landed everywhere and anywhere. Worse yet, it wasn’t enough to just remove the phlox themselves, I often had to lift other plants to remove the phlox that had entwined with their roots. No more.
 Phlox Apparently the phlox had friends with the same bad habits. The folks who told us Chocolate Joe Pye Weed wasn’t invasive lied. Plain old lied. From now on, if I am at a garden club sale or a private sale and there is a lot of one type of plant, it is NOT coming home with me.
My mantra over the last few years has been to head towards lower maintenance. Sure, there are some areas of the garden that are worth the work, like the dahlias. But others, well, not so much. Take Star of Bethlehem, for example. Actually, you can’t take it from my yard as it too is going, going, soon to be gone. That one snuck by as the leaves look so much like grape hyacinth. Fortunately they are small bulbs near the surface. So even though the clumps are large, removal is easier.
 Star of Bethlehem blooming in May Moral of the story – If the plant is invasive, don’t subject yourself to it. We’ve certainly tried. We had gooseneck loosestrife at one point. Because after all, its not as invasive as regular loosestrife, and we can handle it. Ya, right. I had to dig deep for those long runners years after I’d removed the plants. I literally had to remove and replant the Euonymus bushes in the photo below to get to the loosestrife roots, and after several years, I finally seem to have succeeded.
 Gooseneck Loosestrife in Eunoymus The good news – I get to go shopping for replacements. More likely flowering shrubs and bushes. There are some beauties out there. I’ve also gotten in the habit of researching a plant before it comes home. I can Google it on my phone if I’m far enough away that I won’t want to make a second trip. If the plant is from a local nursery though, I’m going home to do a thorough research job before I accidently bring another thud into the garden.
By Carol Cichorski, on January 28th, 2017  Join me at the Chicago Flower and Garden Show for ‘These are a Few of Our Favorite Things’. I’ll be presenting on Friday, March 24th, at 11 AM.
Managing the seminars on-site at past shows has given me a unique opportunity to attend MANY seminars. It is just one of the ways I have been able to rub shoulders with those who really know their stuff. Take Richard Hawke for example. He manages the Plant Evaluation program at Chicago Botanic Gardens. When Richard gave a 106 slide presentation on clematis in 2016, ‘Marie Boisselot’ was on his list as the best white clematis tested. It has a 7″ flower and blooms in June/July. When inundated with clematis options at the nursery, Richard’s choices are going to be on my list.
Oh, there are lots more. Wasn’t I surprised when Jennifer Brennan picked the Root Slayer from RadiusGarden.com. After all, if you’ve seen Jennifer at the Chalet Nursery, on the ABC Morning News, or the Dig In Chicago TV Show, you would expect her to choose a flower as lovely as she is. So what do I get from Jennifer, a brute of a garden tool. Way to go Jennifer!
You don’t need to be a pro to have a favorite or to be in this presentation. And you don’t have to be well-known to show up. I hope you can come to the show and join in the fun. Oh, and Jennifer also picked something more delicate. I’m just not going to tell you now and take the mystery out of our relationship.
By Carol Cichorski, on September 6th, 2016  Its beginning to look a lot like dahlias! We’ve inviting YOU to come see them on Saturday, September 10th, from 1 PM to 4 PM. Mike and I are at 331 Forest View in Elk Grove Village, IL.
If you happen to have clothes that would work well for scarecrows, we’ll be collecting them for Elk Grove Village Pioneer Day. The Garden Club will be running its annual Scarecrow Factory at Pioneer Day on Sunday, September 18th. We mostly need shirts, hats, and accessories. We plan to have supplies available for about 100 scarecrows.
 Those of you with inquiring minds might be wondering what a beautiful garden looks like ‘before’ the garden walk. Well, hosting a garden walk is pretty much like having Christmas dinner. Granted, we aren’t making any food, but, really, isn’t the week before Christmas the time that you redo your kitchen? Or paint the living room?
Our garden walk is in five days, so we are putting in a new arbor. At least in theory. We bought our harbor arbor (aint that cute) in Saugatuck, Michigan, last week. Mike is going to see if it can become the support to train our two weeping spruce to form an arch. That has been the plan for a long time, probably 5 years. So we are doing it now, just before the whole gang arrives. Yep, sounds like a kitchen remodel right before Christmas, doesn’t it?
We’ve also got a weed or two or twenty. Ok, there is more than 20 but I’m not willing to admit it. And there is a disaster area out back for buckets and branches and this and that and the other.
Fortunately, there is also this…
And this…
So you can come over if you promise to ignore this…
You gotta promise!
By Carol Cichorski, on August 3rd, 2016 Have you got what it takes to be a serious flower farmer? Not a gardener, but an actual ‘I do this for a living’ kind of person. Liz Cardella does. Liz is pretty much a one-woman business when it comes to Collie Flower Farm in Woodstock, IL.
What has Liz got that perhaps you don’t?
1 – A John Deere!
Let’s start with a John Deere tractor. Yep, Liz got a John Deere tractor a few years ago. I would say that was when Liz arrived. It was when she said she was in the flower farming business for the long haul. (Let the bad puns begin.) 
2 – Carpentry Skills
 What else does she have that you don’t? She has 20-plus years of experience as a carpenter. Liz was a carpenter in a down-turned economy in 2008 who then took her gardening skills to a new level. She also repurposed her carpentry skills to build what she needed for her ‘growing’ (sorry, pun intended again) business. She built hoop houses by bending chain link fence rails on a special jig and screwed them together. She built drying racks that could be used as shelves in the winter. Mike had lust in his eyes when he saw those drying racks. He thought I didn’t see that, but I did. I’ll get over it.
3 – Ingenuity
Here’s a cool one. (Another bad pun, sorry.) It’s a pseudo-air conditioning unit for the trailer. Take one cooler, one small fan, a piece of PVC, and some gallon jugs of ice. That’s enough to get her flowers to florists and the Barrington Farmer’s Market without heat damage. Liz has a link to instructions for a smaller version on her Pinterest site.
4 – Focus
Long days. Lots of them. Days filled with heat, constant physical labor, and sometimes a head-to-toe mosquito suit. There isn’t time for anything else. Its rumored she cooks all of her meals in the winter and doesn’t clean her house till gardening season is over. And for someone who does the most to extend the gardening season, that is a long time. Liz can plant batches of Oriental lilies in the hoop house at intervals and harvest through November.  .
5 – Business Acumen
 Liz has to grow what florists and farmer’s market customers want, not what makes her garden pretty. It’s not about design at all. It’s about mass production. She can grow unique daffodils the florist can’t easily get. When the daffodils are done, she can put landscape fabric on top and plant crate-fulls of canna lilies on top. She can bring budding peonies into the walk-in cooler and sell them four weeks later when they are now harder to come by and sell for more. Liz’s business smarts have to be as strong as she is.
6 – Land
Liz farms about 1 1/2 acres of her 4 acres, and has also started farming on another property. Rows and rows of plants to tend and harvest. You can see here how she is using rounded conduit and netting for plant supports. They can be covered with frost fabric or plastic as a season extender too. Always function over form.
So are ya ready? I’m not. I certainly gained a new appreciation for what it really takes, as did the other members of Central States Dahlia Society who visited. I want Liz’s business when all she does is snip snip here and snip snip there, artfully placing the beautiful blooms in an overflowing basket. I just may have to wait a bit.
By Carol Cichorski, on June 1st, 2016 It seemed like such a simple task. A rainy day. A little painting in the basement before work. Just a few signs and a small fence. The operative word here is ‘seemed’, because I have once again proved that everyone needs an editor. 
Now keep in mind that I do Instructional Design for a living, in particular editing and improving other people’s class materials. Perhaps that is a fact I shouldn’t share. Too late. Yes, I too need an editor.
I did better on the next sign, the one for my zinnia garden.
Perhaps the dahlia sign with the typo was subconscious, as Mike and I have a running competition each year between HIS dahlia garden and MY zinnia garden. He always wins, and I will repaint the sign so as not to appear disparaging. Perhaps I will even spell ‘dahlias’ correctly. 
Granted, Mike’s dahlia garden isn’t much to look at yet, but it will be. He will win. It will be an in-your-face kinda win, as you can see here from a past year dahlia that is as big as my face.
I can live with that.
By Carol Cichorski, on April 23rd, 2016  I put out my hummingbird feeder today. It is early, but I suffer from intense positivity. I also suffer from internet exposure. Fortunately, the internet resource is a reliable one. You too can go to Journey North to see that the first hummingbird in our Chicagoland area was reported on April 16th.
Journey North noted “Hummingbirds surge north on the winds, making 2016 an early migration season.” So out went my feeder. I get credit for even finding it this early. I filled it with one part sugar to four parts water. Of course, I didn’t add any red dye. I did heat the water enough for the sugar to dissolve easily. The extra mixture went into the fridge, where I can keep it for up to 2 weeks. I won’t have to change it often during this cooler weather, but in the summer heat it can spoil outside in just a few days.
Journey North was a learning experience. Whooping cranes crossed into Wisconsin last week, monarchs are nowhere close to Illinois, and whale babies are in the final phase of migration in California.
 A link on the Journey North site took me to Explore, which turned out to be quite the cool site. Literally cold according to these polar bears that we watched on Cape Churchill, within Wapusk National Park (NP) in northern Manitoba.
Hmmm…the hummingbirds aren’t here yet, but then neither are the polar bears. I’ll gladly wait a bit for the one and enjoy the other vicariously while appreciating the relative warmth of our Chicagoland spring.
By Carol Cichorski, on March 5th, 2016 
There. I have your attention. We all like saving money and $4.00 off the admission price for the Chicago Flower and Garden Show is attention worthy.
After all, the fragrance of 1000 hyacinths will be intoxicating. It has been an easy Chicago winter, but winter non-the-less. I am so ready for the show at Navy Pier. I will again be the On-Site Seminar Manager, this time for Saturday March 12th through Wednesday. The show continues without me through Sunday March 20th.
A few of the seminars I am especially looking forward to are:
BRUCE BAILEY
“PLANTS WITH ARCHITECTURE”
Sunday March 13th at 3:30 pm
Add architecture to your landscape without constructing a thing! In this seminar, you will learn how plants can define a space, guide your eye or bring a sense of order to the garden.
MELINDA MYERS
“PLANNING YOUR SMALL SPACE GARDEN”
Monday March 14th at 11:00 am
Melinda will cover simple ideas for packing a lot of garden into a small space and creating an intimate garden within a large lot. She’ll share tips and techniques for designing and maintaining gardens with year-round interest in every layer of your landscape—from the ground to the roofline.
 I’ve also decided my favorite garden at the show is likely to be from Brookfield Zoo. Though I may not be able to recreate the Zoo Blooms exhibit with an 11-foot peacock, a 33-foot snake, a butterfly with a 14-foot wingspan and a stunning fountain, I sure look forward to seeing it.
About those discount tickets…
Check out the Proven Winners site. You can save $2 off adult weekday or weekend online tickets. Purchase your tickets prior to March 12 and save a total of $4 off box office pricing.
See you at the show!
By Carol Cichorski, on February 27th, 2016  See that smile on Mike’s face? That is what happens when his dahlia tubers make it through the winter and he can start propagating. 53 pots of dahlias planted last week and still counting. The plan is for each of those to send up sprouts, and for each sprout to become a plant. Most of the tubers will agree, and some already have. There are 5 pots in our basement that had tiny sprouts even as he was removing them from the cardboard boxes.
 The Belle of Barmera that you see below is one that Mike is growing for our friend Daly. Looking at the bloom from last year, you can see why she wanted to over-winter it. Likely, we will get 5 or more plants from the tuber. By then, the tuber is exhausted and we won’t plant it. Sad but true. Don’t tell the Belle.
I’ll admit that the dahlias don’t look like much just yet. 
Give these a few weeks and they will start sprouting. A few more weeks and the sprouts get cut off to each become a plant. May will arrive (really) and there will likely be 400 ready for our yard, our friend’s yards, and even relative’s yards.
Many will go to local plant sales:
- The Central State Dahlia Society’s sale at Chicago Botanic Gardens on May 7th and 8th.
- The Elk Grove Garden Club plant sale on May 14th.
- The Central State Dahlia Society’s sale at Friendship Park in Mount Prospect on May 21st.
Just in case 400 isn’t enough, we’ve got 6 more tubers on order from Ritchie’s. Ok, you caught me, it’s not because 400 isn’t enough, it’s because they are so hard to resist. For example, we saw Gay Princess at Ritchie’s last year, and now we are adding her to our garden.
It just doesn’t end … and I like it that way.
By Carol Cichorski, on January 15th, 2016
“Those who can, garden. Those who can’t, color.”
 Perhaps that is not exactly how the quote was originally written, but it is still true. So though it’s a bit chilly (OK, frigid) in Chicagoland, I can still add color to my not-so-real garden. Coloring books for adults are a big thing right now. Really. I got my Secret Garden (Johanna Basford) coloring book at Angelina’s in Barrington, and coloring books for adults are popping up everywhere – even Costco.
I spoke on Creativity at the Buffalo Grove Garden Club a few days ago, and asked if anyone besides me had a coloring book. I’d say 6 others raised their hands. Then I get home and see that my friend Cathy posted on FaceBook about her coloring book, Meditative Coloring.
 This trend is also good for marker sales, though not necessarily your pocketbook. I bought Pitt artist brush pens at Blicks. They weren’t cheap at $3.29 each, but the points are very fine, and so far they are staying that way. I could have spent way more than that, but you can see that these are doing the job beautifully. My 6 year old granddaughter, Allie, was very envious. We colored together last week in Fresno, but at those prices, Grandma’s markers were off limits to her. She was still kind enough to let me use some of her colored pencils. I gotta get me some of those. They’ll be cheaper than the markers, so I can get a whole bunch! You can also see in the picture I’ve been playing with my scissors.
Cathy has both markers are colored pencils. You can see in her picture below that she has gone for a softer look, and has done some enviable blending on the orchids. 
Officially, the 15th is the day that garden bloggers post about their garden blooms. I’ll admit mine were a bit sparse, so I’ve instead provided this art therapy option to get the garden-needy through the winter. Do you want to see what is going on in the January garden? Visit May Dreams Gardens – Bloom Day for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom day entries.
By Carol Cichorski, on November 22nd, 2015 How quickly things change. My little friend is not ready for this weather.
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