Chicago - the Windy City! (and, it's not just our politics!)

Well Well, Mendiac--I live in the shadow of Meinkes, just off Lehigh in Edgebrook. The Meinkes are wonderful people--kind, helpful--and the place is worth visiting for the roses alone.

I always find a hosta or two that I've never seen before. We have been purchasing our xmas trees, wreaths and wonderul variegated poinsettas there as well--and, you're right about the prices too! Family run for ever and really helpful when it comes to questions about things like:
how big will it get. . . what will get rid of this . . . and what's going on with that. . . .and what do you call those. . . For the seasoned pro, eager novice and the weekend addict--Meinkes is my kind of place in Chicago.

bacarney - How lucky for you to live so close! It really is a great find. Yes, their selection of roses is unbelievable. And you just can't go home without a perennial (or two).. I had no idea they had everything at Christmas time. I'll have to check out their variegated poinsettas, I can't say I've ever seen one before.

I hate to see family owned businesses close. A sign of our times and I hate to see it. We used to have the greatest little family-owned hardware store near us. They carried a little bit of everything and the staff was so helpful and friendly. They even had tool rental and mulch by the yard. Now that they closed, we have to go to Lowe's or Menards, a 25 mile drive for a bolt or sandpaper. As my DD used to say when she was little, "I don't wike it."

pastime - I agree with you about small family owned businesses closing. It's so sad and such a sign of the times in our area. Small hardware stores like you had are the BEST! Sounds weird, but whenever we're on vacation, I always stop in the local hardware store if there's one. Sometimes they have the best stuff that you'd never find anywhere else.

It makes me wonder about Meinke's as the couple are getting up there in years. I hope they have family members who can carry on if when the time comes they can't do it anymore.

Medinac, funny you should write this today because I just got back from Meinke's about an hour ago! The couple is getting older, true, but the son (I think he's the son? Or grandson, maybe? Perhaps no relation, but I get the impression he is) seems to be very involved in the business. He is quite knowledgeable and although perhaps not the warmest person, I believe he's a good person. I wonder, too, what will happen.

Hi Sherri,

Now, is that the guy that works in the shed thingy closest to Touhy? I think they sell the weed killers, fungicides, etc. from there? Now, you have to tell us what followed you home from Meinke's.....

No, he's a younger (40-50ish) guy and he seems to just walk around answering questions. He's always there, but I can't keep track of all the checkout folks - different ones each time! Well, this trip was small, just a few annuals to tuck in where needed. HOWEVER . . . a couple weeks ago, I was there and got night flowering jasmine ($7 and it's 4 feet tall!), some delphiniums, balloon flower, and some unusual (at least I've not seen them) annuals called Painted Tongue and oxypetalum. They are gorgeous! The oxypetalum is true blue, the Painted Tongue in stripy shades of yellow, brown, and maroon. Oh, and two monkshood - gorgeous purply green shiny leaves, 'Brunette' snakeroot, and amsonia. The annuals were really cheap for 4" pots, like $2 and the perennials were $4.50, except the snakeroot. They were huge and $22. I think that's all I got. (Enough till next paycheck!!)

Ah! You got the Brunette I was eyeing!!! They WERE huge and healthy looking and $22 was a good price!! I had checked prices out previously at other garden centers. I really wanted to get 2 of them but had bought a bunch of Hosta previously for the bed I was amending and wasn't sure how much room I was going to have. Once these fill out and I see what's what I'm going to check back there again. Sounds like you got some great things there. The Painted Tongue sounds pretty and really different. Sounds like they really dropped their prices from the beginning of the season on their perennials. I'll have to remember that!

The nice thing about snakeroot is that once it gets established, it's super easy to divide. I started out with 2 snakeroot a few years ago and finally moved them this year because they were really crowded by a viburnum and false indigo. When I dug them up, they almost fell into three good clumps - I planted them and all six are thriving like crazy!

Happy Spring, everybody!!!

I just thought I'd mention that if any of you are out my way, "GROUPON" has a $30.00 coupon for "The Barn" Nursery in Cary (Rte. 31 between Algonquin Rd. & N.W. Hwy.). The cost is only $15.00! I just got mine a few minutes ago.

If you haven't used GROUPON yet, it's Very Easy & Very Safe.

I believe the deal runs for another couple of days & the coupon is good till November. Just go to groupon.com. I called The Barn to verify & they said it can be used for anything except tax & any delivery charges. It also can't be used on Mother's Day weekend cause they're having big sales.

My Daffodils & Tulips are blooming all over the place & Perennials are growing nicely. We've had so much rain it's amazing they're not all drowning!

Take care!!!

My Daffs and Tulips are looking good this spring. I have Tulips that I know I didn't plant. Must have cross pollinated with other ones. A welcome site considering the cold, nasty winter we had. All my perennials are up and look good. Some of my daylilies in lower ground don't like all the wet though. The ones I lined out last fall made it considering it was close to November when they were planted. Probably all the snow we had protected them.

They were predicting frost last night for our county, though I don't see any damage. Will it ever warm up?

I hear ya on "Where is Spring?"
we are still LOW 30's over night. Brrrrrrrrrrr [up here in the Dells area]
i dont think we got out of the 40s yesterday.
but they are saying "chance of.." whatever for tomorrow but finally low 60s

I can not wait til i can turn off the heat.

What a nice surprise on the new tulips.

OMG...Waiving Helllooo neighbors!

Happened to be strolling through the threads and your's caught my eye!!
I'm Judy, Glenview, IL.

Just wanted to say hello,
I love Pesche's!!!

Geeze are we done with the rain already? Had a nice waterfall down my basement stair!!

Hi, Seedtosser1!! I love Pesches, too, especially Wally and his amazing microscope that projects images onto the computer. I stopped by there with a branch of my doublefile viburnum that had some distorted leaves and he put it under the scope and . . . wa-la!! Aphids! Got a good organic control and trotted home to apply it!

Hi neighbors, I love Pesche's too! Mr. Wally is a nice guy who's always willing to help you out. I had to get on his case a few weeks ago b/c he was lagging with his e-mail newsletter! Pesche's has good staff, they're always willing to look things up for you and check when certain plants are coming in. They are the only place I can ever find my favorite Senorita Rosalita Cleomes. I picked up a flat the other day and they are so full and healthy! If only the rain would end, I could get all my stuff in. I have plants tucked away under the picnic table, porch, 3-person swing and the little plastic greenhouse.

Hi everyone -

I just discovered this thread from iowaAnn who lives in Elkhart, Iowa. She and her husband are going to be coming here to visit the Chicago Botanic Garden in a few weeks and was looking for input on restaurants, lodging, etc.

I gave here some very general information about the area & suggested she let me know a little more about what their interests are & whether they'll have a car. There are so many recommendations I could make & I'm sure many of you could as well.

If any of you would like to share some suggestions, here is the link to the thread she started on July 8th. It was in the "Upper Midwest Gardening Forum", but I thought she might have better luck with Chicago area people.

Thanks,

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1195464/

Hi IowaAnn, here's a link to all the Festivals and Events and places to go and things to see in Chicago. The lakefront and it's attractions are what you want to see, Navy Pier, Grant Park Buckingham Fountain (especially at night when it's lit up), Boat rides on Lake Michigan (across the street from the fountain) and also boat rides (Wendella) on the Chicago River by the Tribune Building (scenic, informational, archetechtural), Millenium Park, Museums (Natural & Science), Oceanarium, and then there's Lincoln Park Zoo (except the Conservatory with all the plants got nailed with hail so it's a mess).

If you're coming later in August, catch the Air & Water show.

http://www.enjoyillinois.com/getaway/viewGetaway.aspx?gta=102&etb=3


If you're interested, there's also The Morton Arboretum in Glencoe which is approx. 36 miles from the Chicago Botanic Garden heading northeast.

http://www.mortonarb.org/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=chicago%20arboretum&utm_content=6716364637&utm_campaign=fuor.mort006

Try lots of different foods (too bad The Taste of Chicago is over but you'll find there's tons of places to eat everywhere) and most of all, HAVE FUN!

Toni

Hey, I'm in the wrong thread, must be heatstroke, see you over there!

This message was edited Jul 9, 2011 6:41 PM

Wow - incredible Thunderstorm just passed through . . .really loud thunder & lots of lightning! It's been dark all morning, but it turned pitch black a short time before it started raining.

Any of you get it yet?

Incredible, weeks of dry, dry, dry then one storm after another. Well, we sure can use it so I'm not gonna complain. Just wish I had a few more rain barrels, though.

Oh, wasn't it unbelievable? I'm transitioning between Grayslake and Hoffman Estates and I was in Grayslake when the sky turned black, lightning struck and it poured!

But the garden looks great!

It was unbelievable. Donna, I'm jealous your garden looks great - mine just looks overgrown. Well, I guess "lush" is good - sort of like being a bit too "rubenesque" in the hips, thighs, etc! Hey! I'm just going to call my extra padding "lush"!

I've actually shifted into that phase in which you have almost no room left because everything has matured. The spaces between plants are gone and that's wonderful. The endless pruning does leave a bit to be desired.

This message was edited Jul 28, 2011 7:05 PM

I was home a week ago, dry as a bone - I left on Saturday the 23rd after we got almost 9" of rain in 3 hrs.
DH was home for a day and a half this week when they got hammered again.

as far as i can tell, we had no damage, not like other towns, and no power loss either.

Up here in Sauk county WI, we have really has steady rain... nothing torrential, no drought ... just enough so I dont have to water -- though some pots need it, but not flower beds.

Mmmm . . . a nice steady rain. No wind. No blasting thunder and lightening. Sounds like fall! Sounds WONDERFUL!

and no floods!! The one a couple weeks ago was awful, lost huge tree limb! And put a nice hole in my canapy. sure was a doozy

Waiving Hi girls...Wow, wish my gardens would look like something, lol I'm growing more weeds then pretty flowers.
But excited to report my first butterfly bush is beginning to flower!!!

Hi, Seedtosser! Your butterfly bush will make up for everything in your yard.

Yeah, that rain was a frog strangler. My 5 year old Prius that I LOVE was sitting in the street and flood waters came up past the bottom of the door. Needless to say, Ameriprise just totalled it yesterday. Bummer. Gotta get a new car now (and put a couple grand in 'cause they only give you ACV - actual cash value).

Incredible storm last night!! Part of our next door neighbor's tree fell across their fence and onto our shed. These are all huge old trees around here . . .we lost two branches a few years back on a 70'-80' tall Ash tree that were bigger around than most entire trees.

I was in the kitchen about 8:30pm and heard an extremely loud "crack". We were able to see a little whenever there was a bright blast of lightning then my husband went out to take a look during a lull in the storm.

Our neighbor was going to take the day off to work on it and I managed to convince him to wait until my husband gets home this afternoon. My husband felt it would be easier (and much safer) with two people working on it and besides, he already dealt with it before when our tree broke.

There doesn't appear to be any damage to the shed and if there is any, it's minor. My husband can easily fix any damage since he's the one that has been doing all the remodeling, siding, windows, etc. on our house and had recently put a new roof on the shed.

It did some damage to one of my flower beds. Damaged several Hosta, Astilbes, Ferns, a Brunnera and some other plants. . .oh well, they'll grow back. At least no one was hurt.

Our neighbors didn't even know it had happened. I called them last night so they wouldn't be shocked this morning. She called me first thing this morning to talk about contacting the insurance co. and I had to convince her that we weren't at all concerned about it and there was no need to contact their insurance co.

My husband and I had already agreed that if there was any damage he could easily fix it. They're very nice people and we feel that's the way neighbors should be. Needless to say, she was relieved.

BTW...The birds and squirrels are loving the new forest in our back yard!!

I'm so sorry this happened. The storm was very localized. Our house in Grayslake had no damage at all.

And it was lovely of you to be so gracious to your neighbor. I trust she'll "pay it forward", since she sounds like a very nice person.

Oh, my heavens! Nature can be downright viscious, can't she? Thank goodness you and neighbor are both nice people and are working together to work it out. Is there a lesson here for the rest of the world?:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DONNA!!!

Hey Nutsabout nature! Thank you. Hearing from my DG buddies is wonderful!