PHOTO: Paeonia CORAL AND GOLD.

A Rare Affair is a gardener’s dream come true

If you are reading this blog, you are probably a plant person. So am I.

In my dreams I’m at a party, and there is no dirt under my nails. It’s a late spring evening at the most beautiful botanic garden in the world, with great food and drinks, and everyone who is there also loves plants. There is an auction of exceptional, unusual, and hard-to-find plant specimens I need to have. They have been vetted by a panel of experts and were donated by some of the top nurseries in the country. Best of all, the event will support fellowships for the plant biology and conservation graduate program, which is a collaboration between the Chicago Botanic Garden and Northwestern University.

Click here to download a PDF catalog containing the entire rare plant inventory.
PHOTO: Bidsheets and plants at A Rare Affair.

This plant lover’s dream come true is known as A Rare Affair. It is the ninth biennial plant auction presented by the Woman’s Board of the Chicago Horticultural Society. It will be held Friday, May 29, at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and silent auction begin at 6 p.m. in the Regenstein Center, with a catered dinner and live auction to follow at 8 p.m. in McGinley Pavilion.

The Woman’s Board and Chicago Botanic Garden staff members have worked hard to gather an amazing collection of exceptional offerings, including plants and garden-related items. A sampling of the plant offerings includes:

Snow Cloud maidenhair tree
(Ginkgo biloba ‘Snow Cloud’) 

The leaves of this slow-growing ginkgo emerge blonde with white-tipped edges, gradually becoming bright green with white streaking. It has brilliant gold fall foliage.

PHOTO: Ginkgo biloba 'Snow Cloud'.
With its unusual variegated leaves, Ginkgo biloba ‘Snow Cloud’ makes a wonderful specimen tree. Photo © Buchholz & Buchholz Nursery

Inquinans geranium
(Pelargonium inquinans)

This may look like any geranium, but it comes from Monticello, and is a cutting of a species plant that is one of the parents of our modern bedding geraniums.

PHOTO: Pelargonium inquinans.
Pelargonium inquinans is grown from a species geranium cultivated at Monticello. Photo by Magnus Manske (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Cutleaf Japanese emperor oak
(Quercus dentata ‘Pinnatifida’)

This wonderful tree comes from our friends at Fiore nursery. Its grayish-green leaves are deeply bisected, resulting in a unique, feathery texture.

PHOTO: Quercus dentata 'Pinnatifida'.
The delicately-lobed cutleaf Japanese emperor oak, Quercus dentata ‘Pinnatifida’ is a beautiful, smaller ornamental oak, growing only to about 15 feet tall. Photo via JC Raulston Arboretum

Peony collection
(Paeonia sp.)

A peony collection from Cornell Plantations includes Paeonia ‘Myrtle Gentry’—resembling a rose in both form and fragrance—in shades of pink and salmon aging to white.

PHOTO: Paeonia 'Myrtle Gentry'.
Paeonia ‘Myrtle Gentry’ will be available as part of this rare peony collection. Photo © 2007 by Dr. Wilhelm de Wilde, Mariehamn, Aland-Islands

Floribunda is a collection of non-plant items for plant lovers who may have no more room in their garden and those who love them. Most of these treasures are garden-related or themed. 

Highlights include:

  • A pontoon boat ride at sunset led by Bob Kirschner on the lakes of the Chicago Botanic Garden. (Includes refreshments.)
  • An orchid photograph by Anne Belmont, similar to those that graced the walls of Krehbiel Gallery during the Orchid Show.
  • An exceptional opportunity for a foursome to play golf at the Dunes Club in New Buffalo, Michigan.
  • Lessons in flower arrangement and container gardening, taught by talented members of the Woman’s Board.

The Woman’s Board invites you to attend this event and partner with us in supporting fellowships for the plant biology and conservation graduate program—a collaboration between the Chicago Botanic Garden and Northwestern University. Reservations are limited. For tickets and information, call (847) 835-6833.


©2015 Chicago Botanic Garden and my.chicagobotanic.org

Published by

Susan Cozzens

Susan Cozzens has been a member of the Woman’s Board of the Chicago Horticultural Society for 10 years, and a member of the Kenilworth Garden Club for 20 years. A resident of Evanston, Cozzens gardens on a windy balcony, works part-time as a high school nurse and full-time as a wife and mother to three grown children and two dogs. She also gardens on a hot, dry, shady front porch in Naples, Florida, and a two-acre lakeside, clay-filled former cornfield in Springfield, Illinois, so she can handle anything nature throws at her!