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.
By Carol Cichorski, on November 9th, 2015  I’ve been going through my recent photos, and I was struck by the vibrant colors that autumn brings. The explosion of color vibrated through each photo, from the last of the dahlias, to each supposedly last bike ride I’ve taken for the year, to the last of the leaves now flittering down. This autumn, color has been God’s gift. So if you are thinking the seemingly plain old blue sky to the right is plain and old, don’t. I have repeatedly enjoyed that blue sky this autumn. No, the sky didn’t have the words in it when I was taking the picture, but it might as well have.
What the sky did have that day was a magnificent view from Peninsula State Park in Door County.
Other times, the sky blue has been obstructed by a spattering golden leaves, like these, but that’s a good thing.
It’s like our dahlias even know to bloom in brilliant fall colors. Our last dahlias seemed to scream autumn. This one is Normandy Sweet Lucy, and sweet she was. 
Lucy may have screamed autumn, but I think some of our dahlias simply screamed. Utter destruction. I would have screamed too.
Back to our regularly scheduled program, you know, beautiful colors. I try to plan my Busse bike rides so that I get to this spot when the sun is shining just right. Sparkling water just gets to me. How in the world does water change color like that? I don’t really want you to answer, we are right back to its a gift.
Even the sky in Door County was magnificent this year. We have the pleasure of planning our days around what time the sun is gonna set. Sure, I’m used to sky blue, but sky pink?
Pink skies? Shimmering water? Perhaps we are a little jaded. After all, I simply expect the leaves to change color, and I rarely stop my daily activities for a sunset. Yep, a gift. Thank you God!
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
James 1:17
By Carol Cichorski, on September 27th, 2015 
Bella! That was Paula’s exuberant description of our dahlias. Paula is visiting from Italy. Fortunately, she is visiting a neighbor, not us, as we don’t speak Italian. But I knew it was good when she opened her arms wide in our dahlia garden and said ‘Bella’. Again and again ‘Bella’. And I knew it was good when Mike gave her a dahlia. Seeing her smile made his day.
I googled Bella, and she is the most beautiful girl you will ever see. Every feature that she possesses is engraved in your mind from the second you lay eyes on her. You wonder how it is that a person this extraordinary can exist, but find yourself just appreciating the fact that she exists, and even better yet, that you know her.
Paula is right – our dahlia garden is Bella! She is beautiful. So let’s get up close and personal. She will put a smile on your face too.
Thank you Mike, for all the smiles your dahlias grow.
By Carol Cichorski, on September 21st, 2015  This is the time of year I always make new friends. Our garden club helped folks make 65 new friends last week, and I personally made 2. Here they are, happily greeting passers-by on this (dare I say it) first day of autumn.
Kinda scary isn’t it? Autumn – already. And just when I almost finished my spring gardening tasks! I now its autumn even without the calendar. I wimped out and turned the heat on for a bit when it plummeted to 67 degrees in the house this morning, and I have hot tea brewing right now.
Oh well, it was a lovely summer for us. So lovely and fun filled that I hardly even blogged. My apologies. We were enjoying ourselves so much with Kevin’s wedding, which included growing the flowers. Work did interfere with my social media time as well. We even took a magnificent trip to the Grand Garden Show on Mackinac Island, which I haven’t even shared with you.
Ah, but all of that is over now. Memories and dahlias are what remains. Fortunately, lots of both!
By Carol Cichorski, on August 9th, 2015  I have a new-found respect for floral designers. A well-earned one I might add. Just over a year ago, I was honored to say yes to Heather’s request to do the flowers for her wedding. The catch is, Heather was marrying my son, Kevin. That makes me the mother of the groom. It was very much in-character for me to say yes. It was very much out-of-character for me to admit that just perhaps, just maybe, this task was a bit ambitious. Fortunately, I did admit that. As it turns out, it was more than a bit ambitious. It would have been absolutely CA-RAY-Z for me to do it on my own. Little did I know that when my friend Sue, Heather and I met to look at options, it would truly be an adventure.
Sure, I have flowers, lots of flowers. Lots and lots of flowers. That is why saying yes to Heather’s request was even remotely possible. And many of those flowers have graced tables in vases. But this, this was going from backyard touch football to the Super Bowl. Should you do this? Should you do flowers for a BIG wedding? Read on.
- Better start with a mellow bride. Heather – check.
- Better have someone who has been there before. Floral designer and friend Sue – check.
- Better have a mother of the groom (mother of the bride, sister of the bride, insert your relative here ____________) who doesn’t know any better. Me – check.
We got together last July, surveyed the yard to see what Heather liked, and started planning. Enter Pinterest. Cuz not all brides like the same thing. Duh. And it’s her wedding. Duh. Pinterest gave Heather a forum for sharing her likes. We saw lots of white and gold and bling. I, of course, started doing what I do best. I went shopping. Think about it, a gardener, on a mission, who gets to go out and buy things for her garden on the premise that it’s for the wedding. Woohoo!
The planning continued… 
The shopping continued. So much so that my basement started to look like the backroom of a floral shop, overflowing with supplies for the 15 tables. Oh, there were more supplies, two more tables full, because there were also 4 head table arrangements, bouquets for the bride and 6 attendants, a flower girl, church pews, patio tables, the bar, 4 corsages, and 15 boutonnieres. Did I mention CA-RAY-Z. Oh, and no two alike. Add to the checklist: a basement. This stuff has got to go somewhere.
Spring came and I got to go shopping again! Now its the wedding garden of annuals I’m shopping for. A garden we are trying to plant. Trying to plant during one very wet spring. Trying to plant when I spent 5 out of 6 weeks out of town on business. Add to the checklist: stress. Plan well to avoid stress. Plan on having stress anyway.
What helped me through it? I knew that God sent me Sue when I needed her. That was just a year and a half ago. He sent me the most creative person I know, a dear friend with a floral design background so that she knew what questions to ask Heather, and how to make it happen. She was the person with wholesale connections in case this was the year my garden didn’t produce. A coincidence? I don’t think so.
 Plus, I’m contracting again, which gave me immense schedule flexibility. Add to the checklist: time. Your time, your husband’s time, your florist and crew’s time, even your friend’s time when all of the above isn’t enough. Because it isn’t enough. You either set your sights lower than we did, or you rise. Well, we decided to rise.
Let’s go back to I’m the mother of the groom. I was going to enjoy out-of-town company – this wedding was not going to keep me away from my son John and his family visiting from California. We are talking grandkids here, like Allie, who you see to the left. I was going to say yes, when Kevin, aka groom, wanted to learn to dance (even just a bit) two days before the wedding. And I was going to run the rehearsal dinner for 40 people at Heather’s Godmother’s house (with her family’s help fortunately).
Most of all, I was going to enjoy the moments. Enjoy I did. I really did. It was magical and memorable and mine to remember always.
Was the amount of time needed immensely more than I thought. Yes, yes, yes. Were the flowers beautiful? Amazing? Admired? Yes on all counts. But nothing, nothing, could outshine our wonderful bride. We are so happy to have you in the family Heather!
Oh, you want to see the flower prep and the results? Of course you do. I know you do, even if you don’t yet know you do. You really, really do. But for today, it’s all about Kevin and Heather. Love you both!
By Carol Cichorski, on June 14th, 2015 Meet Gloria and Gracie, the Giving Garden Girls. Sue and I made them yesterday for Willow Creek Church’s veggie garden.
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