Kick Off the Gardening Season at the Lurie Plant Sale!
Planting season is among us- before you head out to your local garden center, it’s always a good idea to evaluate your needs and make a list of the types of plants that will thrive in your garden’s conditions. At the Lurie Garden, we garden without the use of any chemicals and only grow perennials, which will come back every year. All of our plants thrive without the use of fertilizers, insecticides, or other chemical treatments and the plant list on our website is a great reference if you would like to select plants that are well suited to Chicago’s climate. We have a plant sale coming up this Saturday, May 11 from 10am- 3 pm. Download the list of perennials offered here. Below are a few tips that can help you as the gardening season begins!
blooming Jenny
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Though snow swirls around in light flurries in the garden right now, this weekend we are expecting some sunny weather. By Earth Day on Monday the garden should have even more spring blooms. Here’s a photo of Narcissus ‘Jenny.’ Those buds really want to open! Stop by soon and watch spring unfurl before your eyes.
CUNNING CROWS
Look up from the colorful early blooms of the garden, and you may find your gaze met with an adroit stare. This spring we have noticed more crows than in previous years. Many birds make the Lurie Garden home, and many more use the garden as a resting place during spring migration, so this is always an exciting time of year to see what will pass through the garden. The Lurie Garden has much to offer tired migratory birds. Local birding expert, David Johnson, says that American crows are on a route from a roosting site to downtown, where they find a variety of things to forage. The construction of the Maggie Daley Park across the street from the garden has possibly displaced some birds from their regular resting site this season.
Every country in the world hosts some type of crow (genus Corvus), so they are often thought of as a common bird not worth noticing. Crows are actually amazingly intelligent. As scavengers they provide a service to urban settings by cleaning up carcasses and garbage, and they also
BLOOM ENVY
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As we head into some warmer weather this weekend, we anticipate our colorful early spring blooms. At Lurie Garden we look forward to cherry blossoms, Lenten rose, squill, glory-in-the-snow, and species tulips blooming in the near future. These will be closely followed by thousands of narcissus. By the end of April over 20,000 tulips will be blooming in the garden. Colorful native ephemerals such as Virginia bluebell and shooting star will be gracing the garden for a few colorful weeks, then they will disappear until next year.
