If Tony Abruscato had his way, every family would visit this month’s Chicago Flower and Garden Show and be inspired to grow their own gardens, no matter how big or small.
If you go
Chicago Flower and Garden Show
March 12-20
Navy Pier
600 E. Grand Ave., Festival Hall A & B, Chicago
For tickets, chicagoflower.com
Chicago Parent readers bonus!
Use discount code ChicagoParent16 to save an additional off adult weekday or weekend online tickets. May not be combined with other offers.
Picture this: Spring in March, with tens of thousands of blooming flowers and plants, koi ponds, sculptures, waterfalls, gazebos, cooking classes and more than a dozen workshops offered each day.
Still, Abruscato keeps adding activities that will get families like yours to Navy Pier on March 12-20.
Abruscato, show owner and director, has collaborated with British International School of Chicago to help kids design, build and plant their own biodegradable flower pot while learning about math found in the plants.
Also among the nine-plus free kids’ activities each day in the kids’ garden will be Mariano’s teaching kids to create their own floral bouquets. Brookfield Zoo will bring some animal pals, while the University of Illinois Master Gardeners offer a zoo of the creepy crawly kind.
A giant playset lets kids burn off energy.
“Kids are going to love it. Families are going to love it,” Abruscato says.
This year’s gardens are themed around what makes Chicago great.
“It’s very experiential. It’s all based on inspiring people visually, educating them on how they
can do things in their own green space and motivating them to actually do it,” he says.
And you don’t even have to have a green thumb, he says.
