Chicago Spring Fling In Pictures

Didn't get a chance to take a lot of photos during Spring Fling but here are a few that I liked. My pictures of the Rick Bayless garden are over on my garden blog for ChicagoNow.com: Chicago Garden and my other post on the subject of Spring Fling is: Chicago Spring Fling in Words. Links in this post open in new window. If you hover your mouse over one of the garden photos you should get a description.

Jade Plant Ball Topiary

I spotted this topiary in the summer at a garden center here in Chicago that I visited for the first time. It is a simple sphere shape stuffed with moss and planted with jade plant cuttings. Crassula ovata is an evergreen succulent plant that is a very popular houseplant grown around the world. When given plenty of light the jade green leaves develop a red tint around the edge and with good care they flower small white or pink flowers. Most of the time it is grown as a tree or several stems are grown in a pot resulting in a shrub-like plant. Seeing this plant being grown in a ball topiary form was a bit of a surprise because I've only seen it grown as a tree or shrub and thought this was pretty ingenious.

Cheap Topiary Frames

Topiaries have always fascinated me and I've wanted to get involved in the art of topiary but I was limited by two things. My first limitation came from the fact that when I first became interested in them I was in college and inside of an apartment there wasn't much room for a dinosaur shaped evergreen. The second thing that hampered my interest in them was the fact that topiary frames are very expensive.