A New Rose of Sharon

 

I recently made a trip to Chicago to attend the Independent Garden Center Show. Being a plant lover, I am always looking for something different for the garden and this show is the place to go to find it. While wandering around, I spotted this little plant with a bloom that was familiar, but different. It had thicker leaves and even the flower petals seemed thicker. I was surprised that it was a Rose of Sharon. The plant was called Lil' Kim by Proven Winners. It is a Zone 5-8 plant.

I like Rose of Sharon. In my garden, I have twelve of them. All are large shrubs with different colors of leaves or flowers. They give lots of color to the garden when they are in bloom and that color continues for several months. What made this one different? Lil' Kim only grows 3 to 4 feet tall and wide. It has small flowers that bloom for three days instead of one day like my other Rose of Sharon shrubs. It's size and flowers was what sold this plant for me.

The other day, I was visiting the local Lowe's store and there was Lil' Kim. They had just arrived in and you know how the story ends. Lil' Kim went home in the car.

Happy Gardening!

Debbie

The Independent Garden Center Show

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to attend the Independent Garden Center Show or IGC Show in Chicago. What a treat!
The show is a trade show and educational conference that is full of new garden products, plants and lots of fresh ideas for garden centers. All those wonderful items that you find at your local nursery or garden center were most likely discovered at a past IGC Show.

 

The trade show is huge and covers a span of  about 5 acres. If you own or operate a retail garden center you can order product right on the spot for your business with one of the many trade show vendors that attend the show. The show also has speakers that present classes on varied subjects. The classes help educate attendees in display, merchandising, sales performance and much more for their garden center business. The show runs for 4 days on the beautiful Navy Pier in Chicago.

 

 

I really enjoyed attending the show. It gave me the opportunity to see lots of new and exciting plants and gardening related products that will soon be available in local garden centers. I left the show overwhelmed with great ideas for my garden and for future blog posts on new products that I saw at the show. I will write about many of them in future posts.

While I was there, I attended the Region 5 GWA meeting. It was nice to see many old faces, meet new friends and enjoy the company of other fellow gardeners. At the end of a long day, I headed home with a large bag full of product literature, sore feet and two new plants for the garden.

 

 

It was a long trip up to the show and back home in one day, but one that I would do again.


Happy Gardening!

Debbie