Wicker Park Garden Club's Seed Workshop popularity was greater than available slots

Each year the Wicker Park Garden Club's Seed Workshop popularity has increased.  This year, even splitting attendees into two groups left some want-to-be attendees without a registration.  Richard Tilley, Our Urban Times English Gardener columnist (above left), started doing the workshop in the spring of 2003 as part of the Garden Club's  educational programming which began the previous fall.

The two hour workshop covered both why and how of plantings.  Doug Wood took the botanist's approach, addressing the "life history" of plants and why a gardener might want to use specific types of in their garden.  Tilley concentrated on annual plants, covering how to start from seed and then prepare them to be planted outdoors.

Larry Clary shows how to work with a woody stemmed plant

Denise demonstrates the art of splitting plants.

Denise Browning, Susan Fontana and Larry Clary discussed and demonstrated information about propagating new plants from old stock.  They showed how woody type plants are propagated differently (layering) than herbaceous plants (root cuttings, seeds, dividing).  (Note: Herbaceous plants are those that die back to the ground teach year while woody plants retain their shape and bud out from that woody skeleton. )  They also warned that the woodier plants do not have the success rate of the other types of plants.

Sharing experiences among the presenters and attendees as well as socializing around the food table is all part of the workshop experience.  Attendees are not just community residents. People come from all over the city and suburbs.  This year one attendee came all the way from Peoria specifically for the workshop.

Doug Wood (lower left) conducts the whys of plant selection.