Fall Bulb Festival
It may be hot and humid outside, but Road Trips Gardeners are already thinking about the cool days of next spring. That’s when the bulbs they’ll buy this year will be blooming.
The Chicago Botanic Garden‘s Fall Bulb Festival is set for September 30 through October 2, 2011, at 1000 Lake Cook Road, Glencoe, Illinois. Of course there’ll be music and a marketplace, but visitors can sip cider, wine or beer while contemplating their planting schedules.
The Woman’s Board of the Chicago Horticultural Society will present its annual spring blooming bulb sale in Burnstein Hall of the Regenstein Center. The sale features more than 200 varieties of daffodils, tulips, alliums and other specialty bulbs shipped directly from Dutch suppliers days before the sale, just in time for fall planting. Fresher and larger, these competitively-priced bulbs produce more stems and flowers.
Garden horticulturists and staff will offer practical tips and demonstrations on bulb selection and planting to ensure your garden is beautiful next spring. Because many bulbs sell out quickly, a special selection of bulbs will be available online for presale, beginning September 8, 2011. Note: these bulbs must be picked up in Burnstein Hall during the Festival.
At 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., the Chicago Botanic Garden Green Youth Farm will give a farmers’ market demonstration on “Extending the Growing Season.”
Culinary demonstrations, as part of the Garden Chef Series, occur at 1:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. on October 1 and 2, 2011, in the Kitchen Amphitheatre of the Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Garden.
Proceeds from the bulb sale directly support the care and maintenance of three living laboratories: the Woman’s Board Rainwater Glen, the Ellis Goodman Family Foundation Green Roof Garden South, and the Josephine P. & John J. Louis Foundation Green Roof Garden North. Proceeds also support research and evaluation of the best plants for rain gardens and green roof gardens throughout the Midwest as well as in similar climates worldwide.
A bulb sale catalog with detailed information will be available online in September.
Public hours for the festival are from noon to 4 p.m. on September 30, 2011, and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on both October 1 and 2, 2011. Admission is free, but parking is $20 per car.
(Photo courtesy of Chicago Botanic Garden)