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26th Klehm Garden Fair is June 1 & 2 By Peggy Werner he 26th annual Garden Fair Weekend at Klehm Arboretum & Botanic Garden will supply gardeners with the supplies and inspiration they need. Sponsored each year by BMO Harris Bank, the event will take place 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, June 1; and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, June 2, at the arboretum, 2715 S. Main St. More than 100 vendors will be sell annuals and perennials, trees and shrubs, vintage goods, garden art and repurposed items. “This is our big showcase and the perfect time of year to see plants blooming everywhere,” says Klehm Executive Director Alexander Mills. “It’s a great community event that people love attending to kick-start the season,” he says. Items will be sold inside the Visitor’s Center, at the Garden Pavilion, and throughout the grounds. A food court lat the Fountain Garden, with a large tent
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for seating, will feature Cantina Tacos, Nothing Bundt Cake, Veebo’s Woodfire Pizza, Lulu’s Roasted Corn, Happy Stix, Anjan’s Eats, Mama Mia’s and Wee-BePoppin Kettle Corn; Prairie Street Brewing Co. will provide beer and wine. Visitors are encouraged to enjoy the 155-acre arboretum to see a wide variety of flowing crab trees, lilacs, woodland wildflowers, saucer magnolias, tree peonies, tulips, azaleas, viburnums, coneflowers, Bolero poppies, cleomes, and Japanese tree lilacs. Garden Fair is the not-for-profit arboretum’s largest fundraiser. Each year, about 6,000 people attend and spend time on the paths viewing 500 labeled trees, shrubs and wooded plants. Many of the annual and perennial flowers are labeled as well, including the collection of more than 75 hostas, about 100 species of daylilies, and many varieties of peonies.
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Mills, who began his work as executive director in 2018, attended the Garden Fair as a visitor last year. “I could feel the excitement in the air and it’s exactly the right time of year for the event,” he says. “There’s definitely a ‘buzz,’ as people are looking for things to buy and ways to improve their gardens, and are talking with people they know or meet at the fair.” Didier Greenhouse has a booth at Garden Fair every year. Shelby Butler says the business will offer a wide variety of plants and hanging baskets. “This is a way for customers to see what we grow and visit our one-stopshop for everything for the garden in a beautiful setting,” she says. Butler has worked at Didier for 47 years and, in that time, became a wife, mother, and grandmother of six. As a nurturing person, she enjoys watching plants
