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Event Series Event Series: 62nd Annual Hyde Park Spring Garden Fair

62nd Annual Hyde Park Spring Garden Fair

May 20 @ 9:00 am - 4:00 pm CDT

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62nd Annual Hyde Park Spring Garden Fair

For over 60 years, the Garden Fair members have visited nurseries from Wisconsin to Indiana to select thousands of plants, based on our own gardening experience and emphasizing varieties suitable for city gardens.

Departments include annuals; container gardening; groundcover; hanging baskets; herbs; houseplants; perennials; trees, shrubs, vines, and roses; vegetables; and wildflowers.

The Garden Fair is held in the courtyard area of the Hyde Park Shopping Center, at 55th Street and S. Lake Park Avenue.

Annuals – Annuals has the largest department with approximately 800 flats representing 86 plant varieties, ranging from African blue-eyed daisies to zinnia. The department makes a special effort to find uncommon plants along with a wide variety of more familiar mainstays. If you like marigolds, the choice is between dwarf (19 cultivars), medium (20 cultivars), and tall (8 cultivars). Petunias, impatiens, nicotiana, salvias—each garden is unique. We have a wide variety of colors, plus plants for sun and shade, wet and dry, boxes and baskets, and early and late blooming.
Container Gardening – Container Gardening provides plants that can be used in a variety of planters in pocket-size gardens, vast gardens, patios, and balconies. Each container can be a garden in itself by utilizing either one color theme or a multitude of colors. Various heights or diversity of textures may be used. Containers allow you to have a desert garden, a water garden, or a lush tropical garden. One can even bring that wonderful garden into the house for the winter! One may fill in a dull part of the garden by adding a brightly colored pot. There are even some combination containers already made and ready to set in your garden. The results can prove to be breathtaking and thrilling and fill the gardener’s heart with joy.
Groundcovers – Groundcovers are indispensable for every garden. They fill in spaces between plants and give your garden a finished look. Imagine sweet woodruff growing among hostas, for example. There are groundcovers for both sun and shade. Ivy, vinca, wintercreeper, and Pachysandra are reliable standbys for shade. If you have a sunny spot where the soil isn’t the greatest, any number of sedums will introduce a solid carpet of drought-tolerant, almost evergreen plants, and they bloom. Flowers may be pink, dark rose, yellow, or white. Other groundcovers worth seeking out are creeping phlox, creeping thyme, creeping Jenny, Lamium, tiarella, and more. Come check us out. We might even have a surprise or two.
Hanging Baskets – This department hand-picks 300 baskets of gorgeous fuchsia, beautiful geraniums, and many other common and uncommon plants. Passionflower, rose-flowered impatiens, and strawflowers are some of the more unusual baskets we sell. We get very full baskets of plants – with many shade or part shade hanging plants, like Non-Stop or Tuberous Begonias, Dragon Wing Begonias, Firefly Begonias, and Hemalis begonias. We strive to get a variety of sun and shade plants in singles and combos. All the baskets are chosen the week or so before the Fair. If we don’t love it, we don’t buy it.

Herbs – The Herbs Department has hundreds of small plants in a wide variety, with over 400 pots of basil (11 cultivars), large containers of bay and rosemary, planters, and hanging baskets with mixed herbs and many rare, unusual herbs. Be sure to note the organically cultivated plants! The majority of our herbs will be organic, with items like stevia (a natural sweetener), rose-scented thyme, oregano zatar (middle eastern oregano), and of course a favorite—chocolate peppermint— try it with chocolate sauce on ice cream. Of course, we carry all of the various basils and herbs as usual.

Houseplants – House Plants selects high-quality foliage and flowering plants, orchids, cacti, succulents, and some rare and unusual specimen plants. The selection varies each year. We will help you match the best plant to your indoor conditions. We offer inexpensive, tough, and easy foliage plants to brighten dorm rooms and apartments. We will also feature a great variety of succulents. Flowering plants may include several varieties of fragrant jasmine; passion flower vines; tropical hibiscus; and African violets and their relatives. For more advanced growers we will have orchids, mandevillas, gardenias, and a large variety of tropical ferns.
Native Plants – Native plants need less water, fertilizer, and pesticide, so they are easier to grow. They bring butterflies and birds to your yard, so there’s double the pleasure. We have plants for sun, shade, and in between. We have plants that like wet or dry conditions. We try to find unusual species and also provide old favorites. Our plants are nursery grown, so no natural areas have been disturbed. We like to provide for the monarchs: milkweed for a variety of growing conditions for the caterpillars and nectar plants for the rest of the summer—a variety of Liatris and goldenrods. We also carry a selection of hardy ferns for the shade garden.
Perennials – Perennials are the foundation of any quality garden. The Perennial Department prides itself on finding the new, rare varieties as well as providing your old favorites. From Aconitums to Veronicas, you will find plants known for surviving in the Chicago climate and returning to beautiful bloom, year after year, in every color and for sun or shade. The 175 or so species sold each year include a dozen cultivars of astilbe, a variety of hellebores, and many kinds of heucheras, echinaceas (coneflowers), rudbeckias, and salvias. Also in Perennials, you will find perennial grasses and carexes, irises, and lilies.
Trees, Shrubs, Vines, and Roses – Our department concentrates on small ornamental trees, dwarf fruit trees, and a wide range of the more difficult-to-find evergreen and deciduous shrubs. There are also perennial vines suited to our Midwest weather.

Vegetables – The Veggie Department promotes vegetable gardening in the urban environment. We welcome first-time growers and are happy to help them select vegetables and varieties for small plots, containers, low light, or indoor conditions. Our space for stock is limited so popular items sell out in a hurry. It is best to come on Friday or early on Saturday morning. The vegetables are chosen for suitability to our growing conditions, flavor, and yield. You won’t find hollow, tasteless strawberries or bullet-proof tomatoes. Instead, look for mouth-watering strawberries that will naturalize in your garden, scrumptious tomatoes from all over the world, and colorful lettuces, peppers, and other ingredients for tasty, nutritious salads from spring ‘til frost.

Details

Date:
May 20
Time:
9:00 am - 4:00 pm
CDT
Series:
62nd Annual Hyde Park Spring Garden Fair
Event Categories:
,
Website:
https://www.hydeparkgardenfair.org/

Organizer

Hyde Park Kenwood Community Conference

Venue

Hyde Park Shopping Center
Chicago, IL 60615 United States + Google Map