March 18, 2018 – Live from the 2018 Chicago Flower & Garden Show!
We’re midway through a month of festivals, conferences and Expos, and today’s stop is the Chicago Flower & Garden show on Navy Pier. This year’s theme is “Flowertales: Every Garden Has a Story to Tell,” and, accordingly, the featured gardens interpret “the unique role flowers, plants and gardens play in the stories of our lives and literature.” With that in mind, the Flower Show has teamed with Bernie’s Book Bank, the leading provider of quality children’s books in the Chicagoland area.
Bernie’s Book Bank sources, processes and distributes quality children’s books to significantly increase book ownership among at-risk infants, toddlers and school-age children throughout Chicagoland.
The numbers are remarkable:
- 300,000 Children Served Annually
- 11,399,785 Quality Books Distributed
- 35,000 Volunteers Annually
- 12 Years of Books
- 0.67 Cost (in cents) to source, process & distribute each quality book
Congrats to the Chicago Flower & Garden Show for its continuing search for worthy organizations with whom to partner. By the way, this is the final day of this year’s show, so get over to Navy Pier today if you want to see it.
By the way, The Mike Nowak Show is proud to be a media sponsor of the Chicago Flower & Garden Show. The guests on the show this morning will be flying in and out quickly, so here’s the rundown of the people who Peggy and I will be welcoming this morning.
The Rose Kings: Chris VanCleave and Brian Puckett
Chris VanCleave joined us for last year’s Flower Show broadcast and we instantly took a like to him. Sometimes known at “The Redneck Rosarian”, VanCleave has appeared on P. Allen Smith’s Garden Home television show and has been featured in Southern Living Magazine in print and online. His writing is seen at About.com, HomeDepot.com as well as various other magazines. He’s also a local civic leader in Helena, Alabama, where he serves as Chairman of the Helena Alabama Beautification Board.
Now he has hit the road with Brian Puckett on something they call the Rose Kings Sustainability Tour: Innovation meets opportunity in the world of roses. Pucket is curator of the nation’s first municipal Earth Kind Rose trial, Brian has a passion for sustainable gardening and for helping others achieve gardening success. Brian put his design and planning efforts to good use as Vice Chairman of the Helena Alabama Beautification Board where he helped transform the city’s landscape into a veritable paradise of plants using native perennials and Earth Kind Roses.
Their talk today at the Chicago Flower & Garden Show is Roses for the Real World, and it starts at 10:45 a.m. in Seminar Room A:
Confused about which roses will perform best in your garden? In this seminar, the Rose Kings will share their extensive knowledge with you about all types of roses that can be grown for maximum color impact without chemical intervention in your garden. They’ll reveal the various types of roses, their growth habits as well as the level of care for each variety to help you decide which rose is perfect for your garden space.
Sandy Syburg from Purple Cow Organics
Sandy Syburg, who has been on The Mike Nowak Show a number of times, is the co-founder of Purple Cow Organics, supplying products across the country for farmers, home gardeners and landscape professionals. He developed an interest in working with nature early in life on his grandmother’s farm, where she taught him the importance of reusing natural resources, such as leaves and other organic matter. Much later, he acquired 200 acres near Oconomowoc, Wis., where he now farms a variety of food crops, while innovating and testing potential new products. Sandy serves on the Grower Executive Committee of Coulee Region Organic Produce Pool, a cooperative featuring more than 1,800 owners. Has also has served on the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Advisory Committee on Organics
His talk today at 11:30 a.m. in Seminar Room B is Healthy Soil, Healthy Plants, Healthy People.
Dale Vnuk from Wyld Creek Inc. Water Gardens
Peggy and I met Dale Vnuk at the opening night gala, Evening in Bloom, and quickly discovered that he and his business, Wyld Creek Inc., have quite a following. We did a short Facebook live interview in his display garden, Sights and Sounds to Delight Your Senses – Leap into Spring, which is Garden #8:
Santa Fe Brick and Concrete Patios, along with Wyld Creek Water Gardens, will be constructing a garden with a theme of a “Leap into Spring” after the children’s book ( “The Frog and The Toad Are Friends” by author Arnold Lobel ). The garden will consist of an outdoor living area, a large raised garden area, a fish feeding area, fire bowl and a large umbrella. Our patio, gardens and our water features will be beautifully illuminated by state of the art of LED landscape lighting.
By the way, remember that live Facebook interview? Five days later, the video has been viewed more than 1600 times! Not bad for a full service water garden retail center that has been in business only since 2004. He’s also obviously a fun guy, so we’re happy to talk to him at a time when the techno music isn’t beating us into submission.
Tony Abruscato, President and Show Director
I have been interviewing Tony Abruscato about the Chicago Flower & Garden Show through my tenure at four different radio stations. He’s back this year, presiding over an iconic Chicago show that dates back in one form or another since 1847. Tony purchased the event and brand in 2011, also becoming Owner and President of Flower Show Productions, Inc. In May 2011, he was named chairman of Chicago Gateway Green, a non-profit organization dedicated to greening and beautifying the region’s expressways, gateways and communities through public and private partnerships. He is also founder of the Get Growing Foundation and is sometimes known as “Mr. Green Chicago.” Hmm. I thought that was my nickname.
William Moss the Garden Boss
It’s been a long time since I talked to William Moss on the radio, so we’ll be doing some catching up. He’s a master gardener, horticultural educator, and author of Any Size, Anywhere Edible Gardening: The No Yard, No Time, No Problem Way To Grow Your Own Food. He is called the Garden Boss for his in-depth knowledge and sound advice, and he wants folks to “Get Out & Grow!” I couldn’t agree more. He has been on the Discovery Channel’s “Rally Round the House,: TLC’s “Town Haul,” HGTV’s “DIG IN, and on national news programs such as The Early Show, Good Morning America, CNN, WGN and more.
His talk today at 3:15 p.m. in Seminar Room A is Prepping for a Successful Gardening Season:
Looking to grow your best garden yet? Find out what you need to get started on the path to gardening success. Discover tips and techniques for sustainable gardening including best practices to improve your growing medium, use of containers, and raised beds, as well as companion plants to attract pollinators.
Janie Grillo aka Butterfly Jane
Janie Grillo is sometimes known as Butterfly Jane, because she shares information about butterflies and gardening at schools, garden clubs, garden centers, churches, museums and more. She was employed for eight years at The Natural Garden, Inc., a legendary native plant nursery in St. Charles, IL and has been employed by Midwest Groundcovers since 2011. She designed and coordinated a handicap accessible therapy, sensory, butterfly garden at an equine-assisted therapy facility and has tagged monarch butterflies for Monarch Watch since 2002.
She’s doing two talks today–one at 1:00 p.m. in Seminar Room B called Native Plants … in my HOME garden? and another at 4:15 p.m., again in Seminar Room B, called Gardening for Monarchs.