If you have yet to visit the beautiful Barber & Oberwortmann Conservatory and Birdhaven Greenhouse in Joliet, now’s your chance to check out their spring floral exhibit and purchase some wonderful, hard-to-find annuals. The sale takes place Saturday, April 30 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday, May 1 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 225 Gougar Road in Joliet. (Just 2 blocks north of Route 30, on Gougar.) 



A small line typically forms before the doors open because shoppers know that they’ll find everything from ‘Acapulco Orange’ agastache and ‘Kent Beauty’ oregano to five types of calibrachoa, unusual petunias, ‘Mango Punch’ coreopsis and, one of my all-time favorites, Salvia guarantica—a positive hummingbird magnet. They’ll have small pots of ‘Indigo Spires’, ‘Black and Blue’ and ‘Sapphire Blue salvias. These are great in containers and in the ground underplanted with vinca, sweet alyssum and petunias. 

“We’ll have at least 12 types of coleus for sun and more unusual annual grasses, like ‘Vertigo’ and ‘Fireworks’ fountain grasses,” says garden designer Patti Kirkpatrick, an avid volunteer who helps plant the display gardens indoors and out at the greenhouse.

—Nina Koziol