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SATURDAY APRIL 29 | SUNDAY APRIL 30 2017
SUNDAY BREAKFAST
Hear them, hear them: retired audiologist arranges for twins to share messages via songs. P30
SPORTS
Brian Vance continues to elevate his game for the Loyola Academy baseball team. P28
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SOCIAL SCENE
Guests celebrated the much-anticipated opening of the new state-of-the-art Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. P16 FOLLOW US:
NO. 238 | A JWC MEDIA PUBLICATION
NEWS
Hoffman seeks to revitalize North Shore shopping BY EMILY SPECTRE DAILYNORTHSHORE.COM
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hile Winnetka officials were focused on a downtown master plan and the controversial One Winnetka development, both promising to breathe new life into the village’s shopping districts, the owners of Hoffman Commercial Real Estate saw an opportunity. The firm, based in St. Louis, owns a total of 12 properties on the North Shore, with three more currently under contract. Hoffman Commercial owns the following locations in Winnetka, some of which sit on the corner of multiple streets: • The 7-Eleven Building, 86-88 Green Bay Road • 743-749 Elm Street/543-561 ½ Lincoln Avenue • 563-571 Lincoln Avenue • 585 Lincoln Avenue • 586 Lincoln Avenue Continued on PG 12
Real men grow dahlias
BY ADRIENNE FAWCETT DAILYNORTHSHORE.COM
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here are a couple of things you need to do before asking a dahlia gardener to talk about his favorite flowering plant: sharpen your pencil for note-taking, find a comfortable chair, and settle in for an animated conversation that likely will include words you normally don’t associate with flowers: words like rebar, nirvana, dinner plate, yams. “Dahlias are indigenous to Mexico where, before the Spanish Conquest, they were grown by the Aztecs for their tubers but not for their flowers,” said George Koons, a Glencoe dahlia gardener and member of the Central States Dahlia Society (CSDS). “Just as we use other types of tubers such as potatoes and yams, the Aztecs used dahlia tubers as a dietary staple.” Fortunately for those who love enormous flowers that can reach the size of Frisbees, the Spanish brought the plant to Europe and affection grew throughout the land, eventually spreading to the United States. Today there are 42 recognized dahlia species and approximately 57,000 varieties. Despite the variety, dahlias are not widely known and appreciated, something the 275 members of the Central States Dahlia Society (many of whom are located in the Chicago area) would like to rectify. Many members will be at the Chicago Botanic Garden on May 6 and 7 for the group’s annual plant and tuber sale, which will feature plants in dozens of sizes, shapes, and colors that Society members propagated over the winter from last year’s dahlia crop. At last year’s sale, 1,500 plants were sold.
“Peaches & Cream.” PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF DR. DAVID SALES OF THE CENTRAL STATES DAHLIA SOCIETY
As of this writing, about 200 of this year’s dahlia plantings are sprouting in Koons’ Glencoe attic, which he and his wife, Anne, turned into a homegrown propagation operation a while back. “It used to be an au pair apartment,” Koons said. “Now it’s my wife’s dahlia nursery.” He described himself as “the sort-ofassistant dahlia grower in the family. I’m the tag maker, soil mixer, and rebar stake maker.”
That was the first time I heard rebar mentioned in recent conversations with three local dahlia gardeners – Koons, Stan Hadley of Northfield and Dr. David Sales of Northbrook. Like the CSDS motto, all three are “basically crazy about dahlias.” And like more than half of the society’s membership, they are men. Dr. Sales explained that he learned about dahlias from Frank Campise, a longtime CSDS member whom he described as
“the Johnny dahlia seed of the area.” At the time, Dr. Sales knew nothing about dahlias. “Frank mentioned that he was retired, and when I asked him how he kept busy, he said he gardened. As soon as I expressed interest, he became animated and said I ‘MUST grow dahlias! They are the flowers that men grow’.” Dr. Sales, who has grown more than 130 dahlia varieties, said he hasn’t figured out why men like to grow dahlias, but he suspects
it is because there is a fair amount of physical labor, including propagation, staking and planting. “These are not delicate little flowers,” he said. Back to rebar: Many gardeners stake dahlias with the steel tension device that is normally used in concrete and masonry construction. Staking is important because dahlias can grow to Continued on PG 12
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