The West Chicago Garden Club

Ghouls in our Garden by Christina Covarrubias

Flowers in the garden are typically thought of as calming and cheerful but what about the plants that are dangerous? Some lovely flowers come with a warning like roses with thorns. Other flowers -though beautiful- need to be handled with caution. Keep reading for examples we have in our garden.

Monkshood Aconitum v. is a delightful, dark purple fall-blooming perennial standing approximately 36″ tall -however all parts are poisonous.

Castor bean Ricinus communis is a unique annual, in our area, with palmate red or green leaves and bright red ball-like inflorescences, its fast-growing tropical appearance makes a unique addition to our sun-drench containers. Castor bean is EXTREMELY toxic and known as the poison ricin which is estimated at 12,000 times more toxic than rattlesnake venom.

Mediterranean spurge Euphorbia characias we consider a thug in our garden as it spreads wildly. It and other more attractive euphorbias can cause skin irritation, rash and if the exposed to the eyes can lead to blindness. We found this out, unfortunately, through one of our fellow gardeners who had a horrible reaction to her eyes and required an emergency room visit. Please wear gloves when handling this plant and don’t let it touch any part of your body.

Poison Ivy Toxicodendron radicans, what garden is complete without a little poison ivy supplied by birds? Interestingly poison ivy loves climate change, scientists note it grows bigger, sprout early and is more potent in response to higher CO2 exposure. Kerry Perry has taken one for the team to thoroughly irradicate our unintentional patch of poison ivy.

Please don’t let these plants ever deter you from visiting our garden or gardening.

If you care to join us gardening in the Kruse garden next year we typically garden from 9-11:30am every Wednesday and the same time on the 2nd Saturday of each month starting in spring.

Visit the garden during any daylight hours, there are still plenty of plants blooming and we have been busy fall-dividing and planting perennials-come find them! Kruse House Museum 527 Main St West Chicago, Il 60185

Tags: Kruse Garden

Our September speaker will be Barbara Collins. Barb earned a Masters Degree in Horticulture from the University of Illinois, Urbana. She is the published author of two books: Landscaping Herbs and Professional Interior Plantscaping.

The NOAA has declared that 2024 was our planets warmest year. In Barb’s presentation, “Buckle Up: Climate Change is Here,” we will examine wild weather extremes as a result and learn what we can do to help our plants survive.

Meeting Location: St Andrew Lutheran Church (NE Corner of Prince Crossing & Geneva Road.)

Meeting Time:

• 6:45PM Arrive & Mingle
• 7:00PM Business Meeting
• 7:15PM Program

By Kerry Perry

It’s all a buzz at the Kruse Garden. We have an enormous variety of perennials that the bees and other pollinators love. Blooming now is calamint, sedum, blue lobelia, golden rod, joe-pye weed and others. Look closely and you’ll see lots of different insects. There are around 500 species of bees native to Illinois. Surprise, honey bees are non-native.

[For the rest of the photos, see the September Newsletter] Can you identify the five insects in these photos I took at Kruse? Let me know at the next meeting. You might “bee” a prize winner!

The Kruse Garden is in need of 10-12” round rocks suitable for edging a garden bed as well as 12″ or slightly large pieces of flagstone to help stabilize some plantings on one of the sloping garden beds. We are also accepting any donations of large to giant hostas varieties you may be fall dividing from your own garden. Please email the club westchicagogardenclub@gmail.com