Editor’s note: This story is being reprinted from the May 3 edition of the Home section. Due to a production error, it was not entirely readable in some editions.
During the month of May, plant stores around the country, including six in the Chicago area, are selling impatiens in three shades of pink and turning over a portion of the proceeds to a national breast-cancer foundation. The program, called Memories, Milestones & Miracles, is a joint project of the Dallas-based The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, Ladies’ Home Journal and Goldsmith Seeds of Gilroy, Calif. Its goal is to raise half a million dollars, says Keith Muraoka, of Goldsmith Seeds.
The program also aims to raise awareness of the disease–an effort that Countryside Garden Center is wholeheartedly joining. Not content merely to sell the hanging baskets and planters, the Crystal Lake nursery is planting a long band of pink flowers along the roadside out front.
The impatiens come in 12-inch hanging baskets or 15-inch ceramic planters and cost $20 to $59. Flowers come with a pink ribbon-shaped pin, a symbol of breast cancer awareness activities.
Local nurseries participating are: Countryside Flower Shop & Nursery, 5301 E. Terra Cotta Ave., Crystal Lake, 815-459-8130; Flowerwood, U.S. Highway 14 and Illinois Highway 176, Crystal Lake, 815-356-9377; Hibbard Road Gardens, 62 Hibbard Rd., Northfield, 847-446-5525; Knupper Nursery, 1801 N. Rand Rd., Palatine, 847-359-1080; Leider’s Garden Greenery, 34755 Illinois Highway 83, Lake Villa, 847-223-2422; and Sid’s Greenhouse, 10926 Southwest Hwy., Palos Hills, 708-974-4500.
To order a packet of MM&M impatiens seeds ($10, with $2 going to breast cancer research), along with a breast cancer awareness pin, call 888-916-2000.
