The West Chicago Garden Club

 “From December to March, there are for many of us three gardens: the garden outdoors, the garden of pots and bowls in the house, and the garden of the mind’s eye.”
–   Katherine S. Whit

January and February are months for gardeners to dream.  The ‘new year’ of spring is eagerly anticipated but no need, or possibility, of hurrying time so we revel in catalogues, magazines, & books (now-a-days, Internet and seminars too) for pictures and words to stir our imaginations and stimulate our creative juices.  J. Nuese, The Country Garden, 1970, speaks of leafing through catalogues, “half drunk with anticipation”.  And goes on to describe winter as the gardener’s cocktail hour, “just as in the candle-lit dusk of the cocktail hour all men are brilliant and all women beautiful so, in the catalogues, all plants are enchanting, all bloom unceasingly, all are easy to grow, all are suited to your area.  It is one of the happiest of all delusions, putting stars into your eyes and mush into the mental processes.”  No doubt, Cecilia Kruse and her mother and aunts before her, happily lost themselves in the bliss (or scourge) of gardener’s winter dreaming. We carry on the tradition without resistance! Continue Reading »