Flower and garden show pros have some tips for you

Don't step on your grass just yet.

Avoid creating mulch volcanoes.

Beware of algae.

These and other tips were culled from some of the experts at Sunday's finale of the Chicagoland Flower & Garden Show at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont.

Gardening seminars, a marketplace and hands-on workshops were part of the popular extravaganza that covered about 300,000 square feet.

It'll be a different game when you start messing around in the garden because of a brutal winter that included above-average snowfall. What follows is advice from the experts who were part of the nine-day flower and garden show.

• Elizabeth Hoffman, co-owner of J & E Nursery Ltd. in Libertyville, said get outside and do some early spring cleaning.

"Kind of remove all the leaf mulch that you placed on your garden," she said. "We would also recommend checking out for wind or ice damage, to maybe go prune out any broken limbs, or anything that might have stone damage or sustained stress in the winter."

Bulbs planted last year should start blooming soon, However, Hoffman and Ken Blass, general sales manager at J & E Nursery, cautioned against dumping too much fresh mulch around plant roots.

"No mulch volcanoes," said Hoffman, laughing.

Expect a lot of heavy snow damage in the garden. What's important, said Blass, is to not be worried about pruning up to 30 percent of a plant damaged by winter, because it'll regenerate if given a chance.

"Just because he's been beat up by snow doesn't mean he's dead," Blass said. "He's just going to need a little bit of love."

• Ed Beaulieu, vice president of field research at Aquascape Inc. in St. Charles, said wait until temperatures stabilize above freezing before performing water garden chores.

Beaulieu said the rough winter likely will be noticeable when ponds and fountain systems completely thaw.

"Heavy amounts of snow coming in the wintertime will increase algae growth in the pond because the snow has nitrate in it," he said.

Beaulieu said those with circulating pumps should make sure everything is running properly. He said it's a good idea to drain and clean ponds, checking light bulbs and other fixtures in the process.

• Master gardener Dena Anastos said resist the temptation of stepping on your grass.

Anastos, who led classes Sunday for the Chicago Botanic Garden, said grass blades are soft and vulnerable. Stepping on the grass, before warmer weather settles in, will break the blades.

• After your flora blooms, try building a grid for a nice display, said Daniel Stober, director of sales and creative design at Sylvia's Flowers in Arlington Heights.

Crisscrossing stems with foliage will support the blooms in a grid, he said.

"We're using things like arborvitae, hasta foliage, boxwood, any of the ornamental grasses that you're seeing now are fabulous for that," Stober said.

He suggested you can be trendy by tightly wedging early blooming daffodils in a cylinder and placing them in a square vase.