March 10--The warm weather has us convinced it's gardening season already, and the tulips poking up from the Michigan Avenue planters seem to think the same thing. Technically, planting before May rolls around is risky business in Chicago, so if you can't wait to get going, we're going to suggest you hold back in your own yard and let your inner gardener roam free at Navy Pier. The Chicago Flower Garden Show opens March 12 and runs through March 20, which makes getting a garden fix pretty simple. Here are our picks for the best things to do while you're there.
1. Attend the New Varieties seminar March 19: These edibles and other plants won awards from All-America Selections in 2015 and will be available to consumers for the growing season of this year. The National Garden Bureau's executive director, Diane Blazek, profiles them in her talk.
2. Consider some roses: New introductions abound, including hardy shrub varieties in cool new colors, lush English-style bloomers and old-fashioned single roses with elegant flower shapes.
3. Enjoy Brookfield Zoo's animals: This is the first flower show garden for the suburban zoo, which will display three huge floral topiaries.
4. Reconsider those garden gnomes: In the Sculpture Garden, you'll see six pieces of lovely sculpture from the Chicago Sculpture Exhibit, a nonprofit that former Ald. Vi Daley formed to bring art into the neighborhoods, making it more accessible to the public.
5. Get into small space gardening: As urban-dwellers well know, there's not always much room for a garden: sometimes just a tiny area of ground, a balcony or a window box. Check out vertical gardens and other small-space tips.
6. Play around in the Kids Activity Garden: This newly expanded garden contains a play area, and an important STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) curriculum offers cross-disciplinary, hands-on experiences.
7. Study the Damage Prevention Garden: Created by celebrated landscape architecture firm Christy Webber, this beautiful garden featuring an outdoor living room with TV area and fireplace, also carries a very serious message: Call before you dig!
8. Root for a winner in the Bobbi Cup: The American Institute of Floral Designers (AIFD) North Central Chapter will host its Bobbi Cup competition of floral arranging. AIFD selects the competitors at random among the applicants. New this year: a student element. Six to 10 students actively studying floral design will be asked to create a floral design interpreting the theme "Chicago Is ..." Students will bring their completed designs with them to the show. They will be interviewed live onstage to discuss their designs, thoughts, inspirations and theme interpretations. AIFD will give a $100 scholarship to the winning designer.
9. See what the Ag kids are up to: The Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences is one of only a few agricultural high schools in the nation, according to school officials. It has a fully functioning farm, greenhouse and aquaponic system with tilapia, and it raises its own beef.
10. Ponder what you could plant in the water bottle you're holding: Nationally known garden writer Amanda Thomsen presents "Fun Containers on the Cheap: Reusing, Making and Recycling Your Way to Unique and Weird Planters and Terrariums." This is self-explanatory: For those with the courage to do something really different, she tells people to "get weird with unique and recycled houseplant containers, mossy terrariums and ways to grow vegetables." She is nationally recognized, having written for Fine Gardening and Horticulture magazines.
Richard Asa is a freelance writer.
