Daytime drama stars to light up annual flower and garden show

Walk up to a glamorous daytime television star and ask how the gophers are faring at her organic farm.

This would be appropriate when chatting with Lauren Koslow at the Chicago Flower & Garden Show. Koslow, who plays Kate Roberts on “Days of Our Lives,” will accompany as many as seven other actors from the long-running drama to the Navy Pier show, which runs March 10-18.

The actors will be at the flower show just a few days, mingling with guests at the March 9 preview party, talking about gardening to an audience of 100 or more on Saturday, March 10, and signing autographs for folks who buy a book about the show on Sunday, March 11.

Koslow and her compatriots will, of course, visit the “Days of Our Lives” garden. Weddings are a big deal on soap operas, and this site will feature four wedding dresses from the venerable daytime drama to fit the Flower show’s 2012 theme: Hort Couture. Other parts of the “Days of Our Lives” garden will represent the Horton family living room with a feel from its early days in the 1960s, and a backyard garden that could enhance any Midwestern home today. The Hortons are the central family on the show that is set in Salem — a town somewhere in the Midwest.

But there’s nothing make-believe about Koslow’s passion for organic gardening. She and her husband, makeup artist Nick Schillace, started farming on their 20 acres in Southern California five years ago.

“It’s rewarding, hard work,” Koslow said, admitting that more of it falls on Schillace.

She likes to help him select what crops he and their one employee will plant, and she has picked avocados and canned and frozen tomatoes.

When they are home from college, the couple’s two children join the actress in selling produce at farmers markets. And believe it or not, so far no one has recognized Koslow “dressed down” in her big sun hat.

“It’s really fun for me to interact with people buying our produce, to talk about food and growing it,” she said in a recent telephone interview.

The farmers also sell to a local Whole Foods store, and they are investigating processing or canning the fruit, which right now is mostly tomatoes.

And yes, gophers are the biggest problem. Organic methods bring back the beneficial insects to eat the bad bugs, but there are not enough gopher predators, so Koslow and Schillace resort to traps, but of course no poisons.

Koslow and other actors on “Days of Our Lives” know their gardening, but it is the glamour of television that intrigues Phil Schleifer, president of Advantage 1 Inc., a landscape design and construction firm in Elgin, who is designing and constructing the “Days of Our Lives” garden, his fourth at the Chicago show.

“The thought of working with TV personalities is kind of exciting. As a landscape architect I try to be a little different, and this is something different.”

Things for “Days” fans to look for:

The front door of the Horton house will be an authentic lime green because Schleifer has a paint swatch from show staff.

You might be surprised to learn that some of the sets are just painted backdrops. And you will get to see real examples in the garden. Schleifer calls it a “behind the scenes” peek.

“The room from the Horton home is going to be kind of a throwback with a black-and-white look to it. That will make the garden pop.”

The wedding dresses will be surrounded by white flowers. But the rest of the garden will glow with pinks and purples. Amenities will include a red cedar gazebo, a water fountain, rain collection system to fit with today’s environmental interest, built-in barbecue system with a bar, inviting outdoor furniture and a table with a fire in the middle.

Tony Abruscato, director of the show, says the Flower & Garden show is not just about pretty flowers, but an opportunity to learn a lot about gardening and leading a greener life.

The gardens were built by professionals who are available to answer questions. For example, Abruscato got tips on what to grow on his sunny and windy balcony. Now he grows rosemary, basil, mint and tomatoes, marigolds, sweet william, grasses, petunias and geraniums. And of course, he waters a lot.

And Koslow says organic gardeners must get used to imperfection. In organic gardening the goals are flavor and varieties of fruit and vegetables you won’t find in the supermarket, not good looks.

“That’s the beauty of it,” she said. “We can grow more delicate fruits and vegetables that can’t travel well and sell them locally so people can enjoy them. We’ve had various degrees of success with gardening and planting, and it’s a learning curve. Enjoying the process, that’s what gardening is all about.”

And she believes that organic food is the “most healthy way you can eat. I can’t stress that enough. It wasn’t until I lived in an farming area that I saw firsthand what goes on regular crops. It’s frightening, the chemicals. They are dangerous to our health and the environment.”

What: Chicago Flower & Garden Show

When: March 10-18, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday

Where: Navy Pier, Chicago

Tickets: $17 weekdays; $19 weekends; $2 discount if ordered online; $5 for children ages 4-12

Evening in Bloom: Benefiting Chicago Gateway Green and Friends of the Parks, 6-9:30 p.m. Friday, March 9, for $125

Days of Our Lives cast: Will attend Evening in Bloom Friday, March 9; will meet with a limited number at 12:15 p.m. Saturday, March 10 (free passes first-come that day in seminar area); and will autograph the book “Days of Our Lives: 45 Years — A Celebration in Photos” 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Sunday, March 11

Information and schedules: <a href="http://www.chicagoflower.com/index.php">chicagoflower.com

</a>Public transportation encouraged: Navy Pier parking discounted. See details here: chicagoflower.com/navypier.php.