The long, low-slung hut without windows and a gun-metal gray door with only the number “12” to identify it, looks like it might hold a closely guarded military secret.
Military? No. A secret? Yes, sort of — at least until April 24.
Kris Bachtell opens the door, and inside are hundreds upon hundreds of plants — in startling colors: a metallic purple and a neon-bright chartreuse. In another hut, a plant with a yellow-and-peach flower that resembles the most delicate origami creation.
The coral bell shrubs and the paper-like barrenwort are among the approximately 36,000 mostly perennial plants that The Morton Aboretum will have on sale during its annual three-day Arbor Day Plant Sale. Billed as “one of the largest seasonal plant sales in the Chicago region,” the arboretum is offering their plant “geniuses” for gardeners who might need a little advice.
For now, the plants are maturing in 10 Quonset huts. They’ll soon be hauled out on carts to a 38,000-square-foot facility for the sale, which runs April 24-26.
The plants are all designed to handle Chicago weather, including about 30 varieties of tomatoes.
Bachtell, Morton’s vice president of collections and horticulture, and Sharon Yiesla, Morton’s plant knowledge specialist, took a Chicago Sun-Times reporter and photographer on a recent preview tour.
Bachtell held up a tomato vine and pointed to the main stem; the lower half was pale green, the upper part purple-green. It’s what you get when you combine a full-flavored heirloom variety that isn’t particularly disease-resistant with a lousy-tasting tomato that is, Bachtell said.
“They grow together and you have this super-productive, high-fruit-producing tomato with great flavor with high disease resistance,” Bachtell said.
In another hut, fig trees — yes, figs can grow in Chicago.
“I had so many last year, I was drying them,” said Bachtell, who has a tree in his home garden.
The figs on the trees for sale are expected to ripen in a month or two, he said.
Tree sales were fewer in 2024 than in previous years because of the massive cicada invasion. Visitors this year can expect more trees, Bachtell said.
The arboretum expects about 3,000 or so customers to buy plants during the annual event. Plants range in price from about $5 to $50.
It’s a good idea to take advantage of onsite experts’ help, Morton staff say, so that you pick plants that will work in your particular garden space.
“Some people come in and maybe they are new gardeners and they just don’t know very much yet,” Yiesla said. “So they’ve seen something in somebody else’s yard and they are like, ‘I want that plant.’ … Sometimes we have people asking for things that we’re not selling anymore because they are invasive plants now. We try to take them to something that might give them a similar look.”
It’s also good to do a little homework before you arrive.
“If people come prepared with pictures on their phone, that helps us a lot. Then we can see their site. We can say, ‘Oh, maybe you have room for a bigger tree or more shrubs.’” Yiesla said.
