Chicago Flower & Garden Show – Cultivating Great Perfomances

Big City + Bright Lights + All Things Theater will be the inspiration for several of the Chicago Flower & Garden Show gardens when they creatively capture the 2010 “Cultivating Great Performances” show theme.

Chicago theaters, as well as beloved stage productions, will be in the spotlight. Iconic plays including Wicked, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Alice inWonderland and Miss Saigon will provide themes for gardens created by top landscape designers. And Chicago’s lauded Goodman, Lookingglass and Shakespeare theaters will also provide inspiration for 3 of the show’s 25 gardens.
Every garden will mix fantasy with practical ideas you can take home.  Some will be sprawling and lush, others will be compact and intimate.  All will be filled with the latest flowers, plants, shrubs and landscaping concepts for yards, patios, porches, balconies, ponds, pools and much more.

All-New Show Floor Design
Chicago’s streetscapes, including a meandering boulevard, cul de sacs, planters and a tree promenade will great visitors on the all-new show floor designed by Terry Guen Design Associates, the acclaimed Chicago-based landscape architecture and urban design firm.

Speakers: Craig  Bergmann, “Making Art in the Garden”;  Joe Lamp’l, “The $25 Victory Garden-Bountiful Enough to Feed Your Family”; Nancy Pollard, “Farming On Your Patio”; Charlie Nardozzi, “Vegetable Gardening for Dummies”; Terra Brockman “Beauty, Pain and the Love of Local food-How to Grow Your Own (and Sell Some Too)”; Jean Ann Van Krevelen and Amanda Thomsen, “Grocery Gardening”; Ethne Clark, “The Power of the Kitchen Garden-500 Years of Gardening and Cooking”; Melinda Myers, “Planning and Plants for Small Space Gardens”; Greg Bartoshuk, “Perfect Perennials for Perpetual Color for Real Lazy Gardeners”; Mary Samios-Russell, “Fabulous, Fantastic and Fun-Perky Perennials to Plant”; Jim Ault, “Confessions of a Pollen Dabbler: Developing New Perennials for Midwest Gardens”; C.L. Fornari, “Perennial Garden Maintenance-the Need, the Nice and the Nuts-to-Do”.  For times and list of even more fabulous presentations, visit website: chicagoflower.com

Popular horticulture competitions return in Houseplant, Window Box and Photography categories.

Chicago Flower & Garden Show, March 6 to 14, 2010 Navy Pier, Chicago. Show hours are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. Adult admission is $17 weekends, $15 weekdays. Special discounted parking is $14. For complete information, visit www.chicagoflower.com.