Shady Grove Wildflower Farm

02/22/2024

Check out these terrific class offerings from North Branch Natives!

NBN is hitting the road —and bringing our love of plants and nature to a Chicago Public Library branch near you! 🐝🦋🌿
AMAZING!!
Join us for these FREE classes:
(Working with Native Seeds + Butterfly Gardens: All Seasons, All Stages)
https://www.northbranchnatives.com/pages/learn
Spots fill up quickly, so sign up soon!

12/07/2023

Love this latest poem written for me by my father Gerald Sloan. It is a funny coincidence that I have spent so many hours lost in the weeds trying to eradicate the invasives and restore the natives after being brought into the world by a Dr. W**d!

Shady Grove Wildflower Farm
(Allison Sloan, Proprietor)

My daughter was born in a pink stucco
hospital demolished decades ago.
Our one-horse town had only
two doctors. When my daughter
came, one doctor had gone home

for supper, the other to a bass
fishing tournament. So she was
delivered by a German veterinarian
whose license to practice on humans
was not good enough for Arkansas.

Thank God she answered the phone.
I guess it’s why I believe in omens.
Doctor No. 1 choked on a fish bone.
Doctor No. 2’s boat sank. Olga W**d,
the attending midwife, obviously marked

my firstborn who now owns a suburban
plant farm and refuses to use herbicides,
another reminder of the often strange
wendings and windings known as destiny,
of how things are as they were meant to be.

Gerry Sloan is a retired music professor living in Fayetteville, Arkansas. His collections are Paper Lanterns (2011), Crossings: A Memoir in Verse (2017), plus the recent “chapthology” Wild Muse: Ozarks Nature Poetry (2022). Recent work appears in Arkansas Review, Cold Mountain Review, Mid/South Sonnets, The Midwest Quarterly, Cave Region Review (featured poet), and Elder Mountain (featured poet). Plus he has six chapbooks, most recently Fractals (2021), a collection of micro-poems.

10/26/2023

All are invited to celebrate the passage of Evanston's new tree protective ordinance!

04/25/2023

It’s tempting to pull out all of those dead plant stalks, but read my Evanston RoundTable article to find out why it's better to wait!

Cardinals sing, maple buds swell, days brighten. With these first signs of spring comes that itch to clear away the dead leaves and decaying stalks of

04/18/2023

Unfortunately these prolific blue flowers are not our native Virginia bluebells! Dig out this invasive when possible, especially where it threatens native plant populations, or at least pull it out before it goes to seed.

Friendly Annual Public Service Announcement.

Siberian Squill: All that Glitters is not Gold.

"This is a classic case of gardening gone awry. Siberian Squill was brought to this country as an ornamental and is still sold in Minnesota and elsewhere, but it has also escaped into the wild and become invasive. It readily spreads itself and is difficult to get rid of, as broken roots often resprout. It is very hardy and cold tolerant, and is left untouched by critters from voles to deer. Sadly, the same traits that make it attractive as a garden plant (besides the vivid color) are also what make it invasive. Large colonies of squill can be seen in the eastern counties of the state, from Duluth to Rochester. There is even an infestation at the University of Minnesota St Paul campus, just a block away from the Bell Herbarium. It is currently unknown how far west its range has expanded (the county distribution map at USDA Plants is quite outdated). Found in the wild, this species has been mistaken for harebell and blue-eyed grass, both native species.

"Please, all you gardeners out there: stop planting this. Spring blooming native species with blue flowers you might plant instead are Hepatica (Hepatica nobilis), bluebells (Mertensia virginica or M. paniculata), blue phlox (Phlox divaricata) or any number of native violets. Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia) could provide bell-shaped blue flowers for the rest of the season."

From Minnesota Wildflowers: https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info

https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/flower/siberian-squill

Image: Peter Dziuk

04/16/2023

Those pretty yellow flowers are the highly aggressive invasive lesser celandine! Carefully dig out and throw in the garbage ASAP before flowers go to seed. Do not compost or place in landscape waste bin.

03/30/2023

Check out the roots on this native columbine seedling that we potted up this morning! So many native plants are deep rooted like this, which makes them more drought tolerant as they invisibly slurp up stormwater runoff and sequester carbon out of the atmosphere, not to mention keeping the entire food web alive as pollinator nectar sources and insect larval host plants. We had great germination on columbines this year and have just posted them online for preorder! Columbine's red and gold bell-shaped flowers are one of the first nectar sources in the spring for hummingbirds and the endangered rusty patched bumble bee. Beautiful and adaptable plant, supposedly rabbit resistant too.

06/30/2022

Stop by our booth at the Saturday Evanston Farmers' Market for your favorite native Illinois wildflowers for pollinators and birds. If you plant natives, they will come! All plants are straight species natives grown right here in Evanston, and are guaranteed to be free of neonicotinoids and other insecticides. Thank you for supporting local, woman-owned businesses!
https://shadygrovewildflowerfarm.com

05/10/2022

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) — LeighAnn Ferrara is transforming her small suburban yard from grass bordered by a few shrubs into an anti-lawn — a patchwork of flower beds, vegetables and fruit trees. It didn't happen all at once, says the mother of two young kids.

10/29/2021

Prairie advocates propose alternatives for rare gravel prairie at Chicago Rockford International Airport

10/13/2021

Please take a moment to write to legislators about preserving one of Illinois' last remaining snippets of native prairie!

09/19/2021

The plant giveaway was a huge success! Thanks to my daughters for the musical entertainment. They will be performing the 8-10am set this Saturday at the Evanston Farmers Market, come check it out and get the last native perennials of the season! Trees and shrubs coming soon in time for fall planting.

09/18/2021

Free pollinator plants TODAY!

On Saturday, Sept. 18 the Evanston Host Plant Initiative, which is part of Natural Habitat Evanston, is giving away more than 550 native plants that

08/28/2021

Shady Grove Wildflower Farm is back at the Evanston Farmers’ Market today! Come see our newest selection of pollinator plants for sun and shade.

08/28/2021

Shady Grove Wildflower Farm is back at the Evanston Farmers’ Market today! Come see our newest selection of pollinator plants for sun and shade!

07/04/2021

Lights off for fireflies! Fireflies need darkness to see each other's flashes, find each other and mate. Keeping lights off or on motion sensors, removing unnecessary landscaping lights and installing monochrome red LED porch bulbs can help them continue to delight future generations, and save energy costs as a bonus.

06/29/2021

With these lovely rain showers, you may be wondering what rain garden plants might enjoy soaking up the puddles in partly shady areas of your yard. These plants all fit the bill and will be at our market booth over the next few weeks: Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis), Blue lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica), Foxglove beardtongue pictured here (Penstemon digitalis), Hairy beardtongue (Penstemon hirsutis), Calico aster (Symphyotrichum lateriflorum), Tall bellflower (Campanula americana), Mountain mint (Pycnanthmemum virginianum). Bradbury's monarda (Monarda bradburiana), and Orange coneflower (Rudbeckia fulgida).

06/25/2021

The pale purple coneflowers (Echinacea pallida) are in full bloom here at our parkway prairie patch! They were little 4-inch seedlings just a year ago. These sold out last week at the market, but we will have more in stock possibly later in the summer, definitely next spring. They make a good pairing with purple coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea) since they bloom several weeks earlier and are shorter.

06/01/2021

Great column in the Tribune, even if the hostas in the photo they chose are not native!

Suburban homeowners can do themselves and the environment a big favor by replacing grass with native plants, though some may feel peer pressure from neighbors to maintain manicured lawns.

05/28/2021

We are featured in today’s farmers’ market blog!

05/27/2021

This "New This Week" category on the home page of shadygrovewildflowerfarm.com will make it easier to see the latest additions. New this week, Obedient Plant! A beauty for rain gardens or moist soils, but don't let the name fool you: This mint family member will spread via underground rhizomes and is named for the tendency of the flowers to remain pointing in whatever direction they are pushed toward. Bradbury's Monarda remains a top seller, so plants are small this week. Pollinator Pledge signs are now available in Spanish! And the popular blue color is back in stock. Happy planting, y'all! And keep us posted on what pollinators show up.

05/21/2021

Bradbury's monarda and purple giant hyssop are now listed for pre-order on the website. The monarda is an attractive native ground cover with its 1-2-foot height and lovely butterfly-magnet blossoms. The giant hyssop reaches a full 6 feet in height and is a favorite nectar plant of the endangered rusty patched bumble bee. My plants are still small but strong in roots, which is where most of the growth occurs on natives the first couple of years. Otherwise, they would not be able survive droughts and Illinois winters!

05/18/2021

We are honored to supply Rusty Patched Bumble Bee plants for this worthwhile project! More volunteers are needed to grow host plants then upload photos of bees and plants to their "Host Plants for the Rusty Patched Bumble Bee" iNaturalist project. Sign up at https://evanstonhostplants.org. We will have a selection of RPBB favorites every week at the market and online - hyssops, monardas, mountain mints, echinaceas, milkweeds, penstemons. If you plant it, they will come!

Evanston is abuzz with community efforts focused on saving the bees. In partnership with Natural Habitat Evanston, the Evanston Host Plant Initiative is advocating for the inventory and planting of host plants for the endangered Rusty Patched Bumble Bee. The species’ population has declined about ...

05/14/2021

Everyone is potted up and ready for the Evanston farmers' market tomorrow! We will have raspberry, elderberry and blackberry bushes this week, but in limited quantity, so get there early or pre-order on our website, shadygrovewildflowerfarm.com. We are also rolling out a few Yellow Coneflowers (Ratibida pinnata) and a new milkweed species, Prairie Milkweed, Asclepias sullivantii, in addition to more of the Common, Rose/Swamp and Whorled, while our Butterfly (Milk)W**d matures. As always, native and neonic-free. Hope to see you at the market!

05/07/2021

Mother's Day Special: Give your mom the gift of nature with a potted wildflower for her yard! Purple coneflowers, rose milkweeds and hay scented ferns available in reusable tin pots in an array of colors. Preorders for this week's market selection available at shadygrovewildflowerfarm.com. See you tomorrow at the Evanston farmers' market!

05/07/2021

Shady Grove is now offering oaks! These descendants of Evanston's heritage old growth were grown from acorns collected from the Big Woods of north Evanston by Nature's Perspective Landscaping owner Tom Klitzkie. Our most essential native trees for wildlife, oaks were the dominant canopy in Chicagoland's oak savanna ecosystem but have been cut down to only 17% of their 1830s pre-settlement numbers. These red and bur oak saplings are three years old and 3-4 feet tall. Price: $45 including rabbit guard. Preorders and pickup available through our website, shadygrovewildflowerfarm.com.

05/05/2021

Thanks to all who came out to our opening day at the market last Saturday! It was inspiring to talk to so many customers who are interested in planting natives and helping pollinators survive. We will be there through wind and rain every Saturday with a different selection each week depending on what's ready to plant. Hope to see you Saturday!

05/04/2021

We had a great day yesterday helping plant eleven new native trees at Evanston Township High School! Kudos to Leslie Shad and Natural Habitat Evanston for securing the Trees Forever grant, and thanks to the RoundTable for covering the event. To clarify, my quote should say that oaks were the dominant canopy in the Chicago region but that we have lost 83% since the 1830s. (Not sure the numbers for the entire state.)

Volunteers Plant 11 Native Trees at ETHS Leslie Shad keeps her eye out for trees. The founder and co-leader of Natural Habitat Evanston, not only does she

04/28/2021

I loved celebrating Earth Day by learning about trees with this sweet group of Quest 4 Earth environmental warriors!

04/21/2021

Many times when I am transplanting seedlings I am astonished to see how much of their growth happens out of sight under ground. Today's deep-rooted prairie milkweed (Asclepias sullivantii) reminded me of this famous illustration of the root depths of prairie plants. Numbers at the edges equal feet. Turf grass on left for comparison.