Start Thinking Fall? Now?

Yep, the days are getting shorter. Boo-hoo! And it’s hard to imagine cooler days and evenings when our temperatures are soaring into the ninety degree range. But it’s time that you bust out the bin you store all your seeds in and take a peek and see what’s in there. If you’re giving me that empty look right now, I’ll take that to mean, “What seed bin? I was supposed to have a seed bin?”

Well, it’s that “inventory” of seeds that you just didn’t get to plant earlier in the spring, or maybe you just didn’t need all the seed and have a few remnants left in the package. But if you don’t have any kind of inventory—not to worry—you just might be able to pick up a few selections at the box stores or a local nursery—they don’t want to store any leftover seed and you’ll probably get them at a bargain price too. If you really have your heart set on a very particular variety you still have a bit of time to place an order online through your favorite seed catalog.

Bonus: most of the items that you will be starting for fall harvest can be sown directly outside (no need for a greenhouse or cold frame or any of that jazz) ‘cause soil and air temperatures are plenty warm enough right now.

Where will you put them? How are your current crops looking? Is there something out there that is looking a bit tragic? Have a heart and put it out of its misery—yank it out. Be it a water-logged area of annuals, an over-the-hill veggie planting, or an out of sorts container, use that prime real estate for a new and improved crop. Do a bit of cultivating in the area; add in a bit of compost if you’ve got it. Rake the soil nice and even and then you’re ready to sow.

You will need to be more diligent with your watering techniques at this time of year than in the cooler and wetter season of spring. When those new little seedlings poke out they are quite vulnerable to those blazing sun rays beating down on them. Be prepared to possibly even water twice a day during hot, sunny and windy conditions. Be gentle with the hose spray though, you don’t want to dash them right out of the ground with a forceful jet of water.

So, what can you plant? Think short term; since our days are getting shorter there is less time for some plants to mature (like eggplant, peppers and tomatoes). Look to varieties that will mature within about two to two and half months—around the end of September or mid-October at the latest, so 60-75 days.

Sow your bush beans, beets, cabbage, carrots, kale, Swiss chard, turnips right away and in a few weeks start sowing lettuce and lettuce mixes and well as spinach and radishes. Once those colorful and textural lettuce mixes start filling in they make the waning summer/fast approaching fall a bit easier to tolerate.

It's the American Idol of the Garden World

If you spin into the Idea Garden from our south entrance (just off the shady path from the First Division Museum), you’ll find a trio of circles bursting with blooms. Within those three circles are the entries for this year’s American Garden Award. They are bright with color and three of the four varieties often have a grouping of butterflies performing a tango atop them.

The American Garden Award competition is in its second year. Numerous plant nominees were submitted to the judges by various breeders. The AGA judges selected four varieties to compete to become this year’s national winner. And you, the gardening public, get to vote on who you think the winner should be. Eighteen sites nationwide, of which Cantigny is one, are displaying the four nominees. And just like the famed television program, there are several ways that your vote can be counted:

1. You can phone in your top favorite, or...
2. You can text in your top favorite, or…
3. You can vote on the website: www.americangardenaward.org or….
4. Lastly, unlike the television program, you can mail in a postcard.


Our spiffy mailbox, which contains the postcards,was hand painted by one of our horticulture volunteers, Gladys Johnston.

The four nominees this year are: Echinacea ‘Prairie Fire’, Ornamental Pepper Purple Flash, Rudbeckia ‘Denver Daisy’, and Zinna ‘Profusion Knee-High Red’. Please note that all the pictures within this blog were taken at Cantigny.

Instructional sign that also identifies each variety.

Echinacea 'Prairie Splendor'™ was Fleuroselect Gold Medal winner in 2007. And no wonder—at 24” it is shorter than most Echinacea, but blooms its little heart out from June through the first frost. The only entry in the group that is a perennial and blooms its first year from seed.

Echinacea purpurea 'Prairie Splendor'

As is typical for ornamental peppers, their fruit is fiery hot, but you’ll want to grow this exotic plant for its striking black leaves that have “flashes” of purple, green and white. Ornamental Pepper ‘Purple Flash’ looks great in container plantings as well as a bedding plant. While short of stature (10-13”) it packs quite a punch in the “looks” category and is drought tolerant as well.

Ornamental Pepper 'Purple Flash'

Rudbeckia hirta ‘Denver Daisy’ was selected by the city of Denver for their 150-year anniversary beautification project. This tall plant (18-20”) has large (4-6”) non-stop gold flowers with an inner concentric band of russet. You’ll get a lot of bang for your buck with this black-eyed susan annual plant.

Rudbeckia hirta 'Denver Daisy'



Zinnia ‘Profusion Knee High Red’ The Profusion series is well-known for its tolerance of heat and humidity, but ‘Red’ is a bit taller (16-24”) than its siblings. This red-blooming hybrid is nice as a cut flower and is drought tolerant too.

Zinnia hybrida 'Profusion Knee-High Red'

And the winner of the next American Garden Award is……to be announced in September. Don’t forget to vote for your favorite!

There's a New Tour in Town!

Over the years we have offered a variety of garden tours…morning tours with horticulture staff responsible for a particular area, volunteer docent tours, and the always popular evening tours with wine and light refreshments. Recently, we’ve added a different kind of tour—one that’s available to you whenever and wherever you may be… Over the Fourth of July weekend we added the Cantigny Park Audio Tour.

It’s a nifty interactive tour that can take the visitor a bit behind the scenes on various hot spots throughout gardens and around our Visitors Center and two museums. Signs are posted with a phone number to dial to connect to Cantigny’s Cell Audio Tour—then a “stop” number is provided to focus in on the area in front of you, when you’re at the park, or you can refer back to a tidbit of information from a remote location (like home) by dialing the same numbers.

Okay, how ‘bout an example…so, you’re out and about on our grounds and you spy a sign that asks an intriguing question—like, “Who is Cantigny’s oldest resident?“. Dial up the number: 630-315-2588 and press the stop number as directed on the sign (19) and presto-chango, you’ll be getting some interesting facts about that topic!





Did you know that Cantigny once had an airport for Colonel McCormick’s private airplane? Do you know what makes the Chicago Peace Rose unique to Cantigny? You can choose to stop and listen or….maybe you already know how to attract butterflies to your garden—well, yes you do if you’ve been following this blog at all….then you can simply by-pass that stop. If you were on human-guided tour you’d have to bide your time on a subject you’re already well versed in. And one of the coolest parts about this tour is that you can dial it up whenever you’re ready and interested.

There’s a new tour in town and it’s custom-made and personalized to your preferences. A tour with a different perspective: you pick/you choose. A sort of cafeteria plan of tours... Bon Appétit!