Final CCGA Perennial Distribution for 2016 A Big Success!
On Friday September 30, CCGA volunteers showed up early in the morning at New Horizons Community Garden to prepare for the CCGA Resource Committee’s final Perennial Distribution of the year. Scott Byron’s (really) long truck arrived at 8:30, and was bursting with a multitude of pots of donated plants in seemingly endless stacks and layers! Working carefully, 25 volunteers unloaded over 3,500 perennials, grasses, and shrubs, and created close to 80 plant groupings, each of which contained dozens of plants.
It was a long, wet, but very rewarding morning! CCGA welcomed representatives from over 70 Chicago community gardens. Volunteers helped load vehicles with plants soon to find new homes across the city.
CCGA wants to give a huge thank you to the landscape firm Scott Byron & Company. In addition to providing beautiful plants for the event, Scott Byron coordinated and collected donations from Chicago area growers and delivered them to New Horizons Community Garden. CCGA is also grateful for the substantial perennial donations from Elite Growers, Intrinsic Perennial Gardens, The Contained Garden, Twixwood Nursery, Mariani Landscaping, Montdale Gardens, Charles Fiore, and Chicago Plant Rescue. Special thanks to an anonymous donor who contributed over 100 native perennials rarely provided through distributions, including Wavy Gravy Aster (Aster laevis), Butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa variation ‘clay’), Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida var. deamii), Calamint (Calmintha nepeta nepeta), Turtlehead (Chelone obliqua ‘Hot Lips’), and Tennessee Coneflower (Echinacea tennesseensis).
CCGA volunteers are continually compiling a database of all the donated plants. Click HERE to see a working list we maintain from the plant distributions.
The CCGA Resources Committee thanks everyone who participated in this event. We are all very grateful for the generosity of Scott Byron and the other landscape companies and growers. We are also thankful for our great volunteers and for the community gardens who braved the rainy weather to receive plants. Thank you everyone!
