Putting the Bloom in Bloomington-Normal

BLOOMINGTON-NORMAL - Things will be blooming again in Bloomington-Normal during "Kids in the Garden," the twelfth annual Glorious Garden Festival Garden Walk, featuring a tour of eight private gardens, to be held Friday and Saturday, June 20 and 21 at several locations throughout the twin cities. Hosted each year on the third weekend in June, the Festival is a fundraising event benefiting Chestnut Health Systems and the David Davis Mansion Foundation.

The Community Garden Walk will be held Friday, June 20 from 1 to 8 p.m. and Saturday, June 21 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The walk begins on the grounds of the David Davis Mansion State Historic Site, 1000 E. Monroe Drive, Bloomington, and walkers must pick up maps and programs at the mansion. The event will be held rain or shine.

The garden walk offers self-guided tours through eight private gardens in the community. This year's gardens include sunny, shade, perennial and water gardens that range from small, backyard gardens to a rooftop garden to expansive gardens filled with ornaments and annuals.

Landscape nurseries sponsoring the event—Casey's Garden Shop, Chizmar Landscaping, Green View Companies, Grieder Sod & Landscaping, and Wendell Niepagen Greenhouses and Garden Center—may have experts on hand to provide information about the more unusual plants. Other corporate sponsors include Chasin' Rainbows Gifts and Home Accents, Original Smith Printing, Osborn & DeLong, State Farm Insurance Companies, Westminster Village, and Zimmerman & Armstrong Investment Advisors.

Tickets for the garden walk are $12 in advance, $15 the weekend of event, and $7 for children ages 1 to 17. Tickets may be purchased in advance at a variety of vendors throughout Bloomington-Normal and at the David Davis Mansion the weekend of the event. Easy ticket and map pick-up is available with drive-through service and free parking on the Mansion grounds. For more information about this year's ticket sale locations, contact the Davis Mansion at (309) 828-1084.

The Garden Walk ticket price will include free admission to the McLean County Museum of History, 200 N. Main St., Bloomington, where visitors will enjoy touring a special garden exhibit entitled: "Gifts to the Prairie: The Work of Pioneer Nurserymen & the Art of the Prestele Family." The exhibit features William H. Prestele's extraordinary lithographs, which were hand-colored to reflect the exact appearance and beauty of the most popular fruits and flowers of the day. Created for Bloomington's F. K. Phoenix Nursery, the largest commercial nursery in the West in 1867, the prints represent the unique art form used by pioneer nurserymen, such as Phoenix, to sell their plant stock. The exhibit explores the work of these men, the high-quality lithographs they used to sell their stock, and the way in which they transformed the Illinois prairie landscape.

On Saturday only, a new "Kids in the Garden" event will feature fun, hands-on activities for children. Children and their families will enjoy creating environmentally friendly garden creatures at the "Build-A-Bug" workshops on the Mansion lawn, designing their own unique garden stepping stones, and going on a special scavenger hunt in "Sarah's Garden." All kids' events will begin on the Mansion grounds, and the scavenger hunt will continue at the Museum of History, where special prizes will be given to every child attending the event. The hands-on activities are hosted by: the McLean County Museum of History, the Children's Discovery Museum, and the University of Illinois Extension Master Gardeners in McLean County. Cost for the scavenger hunt and hands-on workshops is $10 per family (for up to four persons). Call (309) 828-1084 for information about the special "Kids in the Garden" event.

"What's unique and exciting about this year's event is our theme, ‘Kids in the Garden,'" said Diana Myers, Chestnut Health Systems' Alumni and Volunteer Coordinator. "We chose this theme because children have touched the lives of so many of our garden owners and because gardening appeals to the child in each of us. Thus, one garden owner has been helped by the many children she has known in her neighborhood and throughout her career. Another has created a garden filled with the whimsy and imagination that appeals to all children, including her own grandchild. In every case, each garden owner has planned and planted their gardens using the creative, childlike imagination that each of us has. Chestnut Health Systems is also going to use the proceeds from this year's event to benefit their adolescent program. The theme, ‘Kids in the Garden,' is therefore an imaginative reminder of Chestnut's important mission."

"This is the Glorious Garden Festival's twelfth anniversary, and we have many new and exciting gardens," said Laura Alferink, Executive Director of the David Davis Mansion Foundation. "During the past eleven years more than 11,000 visitors have toured more than 110 of Bloomington-Normal's loveliest private gardens, and the event has netted nearly $200,000 for our two non-profit organizations sponsoring the event.

Moreover, we have such a wide variety of gardens this year that our garden walkers will be inspired by the many imaginative ways that they will be able to transform their own gardens over time."

"We will again host a Victorian Garden Party on the David Davis Mansion lawn, where visitors will be able to take tea under a summer tent opposite the site's heirloom garden," said Davis Mansion Site Manager Marcia Young. "Complimentary tea, hors d'oeuvres and desserts will be served, courtesy of Lancaster's Restaurant, Schnuck's Supermarket, The Great Harvest Bread Company, and Janet's Cakes."

There will also be tours of "Sarah's Garden" on the Davis Mansion lawn conducted by members of the University of Illinois Extension Master Gardeners in McLean County. These experts will help visitors learn how to create a heritage or Victorian garden in their own back yards, using heirloom plants from Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and other famous American gardens. The University of Illinois Extension Master Gardeners in McLean County is working hard on the restoration of Sarah's Garden and its members have provided much of the work needed to get Sarah's Garden ready for this event.

Event proceeds will enable the Mansion to continue the restoration of the historic Sarah Davis garden, a long-term project that involves ongoing research, development of new school programs featuring the garden, and the reintroduction of difficult-to-find heirloom plants and seeds. Chestnut Health Systems will use its proceeds to provide continuing care for both their adult and adolescent treatment programs.

"The Glorious Garden Festival is more than just a fundraiser, however," said Alferink. "It provides fun and learning for everyone. You'll have a chance to discover new plants for Midwestern gardens and talk to the experts from local nurseries who can tell you how to find, plant and care for everything from the traditional to the exotic. The Garden Walk is a great place to borrow other people's imaginative ideas, become more knowledgeable and imaginative yourself, and have fun, all at the same time!"

For more information about Glorious Garden Festival call (309) 828-1084 or visit http://gloriousgardens.tripod.com. or www.davismansion.org.

The David Davis Mansion State Historic Site, administered by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (www.Illinois-History.gov), was built in 1872 for Supreme Court Justice David Davis and his wife, Sarah. It is open Wednesday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. for free public tours.