HYDE PARK — All plants at Hyde Park Garden Fair are guaranteed hand-selected.
The 56th annual Hyde Park Garden Fair kicks off at 9 a.m. Friday and runs through 5 p.m. Saturday in the Hyde Park Shopping Center, 5500 S. Lake Park Ave.
As always, a team of volunteer gardeners with decades of experience each has combed nurseries across three states for the best plants.
“We go out and pick the plants and that’s not true for many other places, even some botanic gardens,” said George Davis, who’s in his 15th year at the garden fair. “When you come here, you’re getting a lot of effort.”
He said volunteers went as far as Fort Wayne, Ind., this year to find plants.
Visiting the nurseries in person, the garden fair buyers often find beautiful plants that are practically unheard of to even experienced gardeners — like the chocolate shogun astilbe from Japan that’s available from growers in the United States for the first time this year.
“It’s a great plant: it handles total shade, it’s drought tolerant and has beautiful plumes of flowers,” said George Rumsey, who found the plant and is one of the lead organizers.
Also on hand will be exotics like African varieties of basil and classics like black-eyed Susans and impatiens.
Rumsey said there is a special focus this year on plants that are particularly beneficial to butterflies and bees and all plants are guaranteed to have never seen pesticides linked to health problems in bees.
All sales from the garden fair pay for the plantings in the formal gardens at Nichols Park, Spruce Park and other parks across the neighborhood, as well as urban agriculture and gardening programs across the South Side.
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