A Sudden Softness: Flower Shows

“Garden design is all about concealment and surprise.”
― Andrew Crofts, Secrets of the Italian Gardener

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‘Tis the season … for flower shows!

I plan to attend the Boston Flower & Garden Show next week (runs from 11-15 March) at the Seaport World Trade Center (with the theme “Season of Enchantment”), and until then I’m contenting myself with looking at other people’s photos from other cities’ flower shows. And reviewing photos from past years at the Boston Flower Show — those are the photos decorating this post.

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“A garden should make you feel you’ve entered privileged space — a place not just set apart but reverberant — and it seems to me that, to achieve this, the gardener must put some kind of twist on the existing landscape, turn its prose into something nearer poetry.”
― Michael Pollan, Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education

(not sure I entirely agree that the existing landscape isn’t poetry already)

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A list of flower shows already held or soon to be held, and some of my favourite flower show photo accounts so far this year:

The Northwest Flower & Garden Show in Seattle, WA, held on 6 acres at the Washington State Convention Center from 11-15 Feb. The theme was “Romance Blossoms.”

• Loree Bohl of the danger garden blog attended the Northwest Flower and Garden Show and posted several articles (mostly photos) about it: the design gardens, the small-space “City Living” design gardens, and the vendors (whoa). (Most of her posts emphasize plants that could poke an eye out, so beware!)
• (added 3/10) Tamara at Chickadee Gardens posted lots of pics, with brief commentary, of the displays, and many more of the marketplace vendor displays and wares.
• Growing Steady: Urban Homesteader Meets Compulsive Plant Collector also blogged the show with some great pics, including of some interesting mason bee huts from recycled materials, and some edible gardening.
• (added 3/10) Amateur Bot-ann-ist wrote two posts about the Northwest Flowers & Garden Show: Northwest Flower & Garden Show 2015: Romance Blossoms (Day 1) (pics of things she found interesting) and Northwest Flower & Garden Show 2015: Romance Blossoms (Day 2) (plants and landscapes).
• (added 3/10) Anna at Flutter & Hum posted about her first-ever experience at the NWF&G show, with many pics. (Spoiler: Her expectations were not met overall, but she liked the plant vignettes.)
• Alison at Bonney Lassie posted What I Bought At the Northwest Flower and Garden Show. (danger garden would have liked some of these!). An interesting photographic array.

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The Portland (OR) Yard Garden and Patio show was held from 27 Feb to 1 March at the Oregon Convention Center.

• Loree Bohl of danger garden also blogged this with many photos and interesting commentary. She also blogs about the many plants for sale there.
• The Outlaw Gardener posted Randomness from the Portland Yard, Garden and Patio Show, with 15 or so candids and photos of landscapes, flowers, architecture, and products, and a little commentary.
• (added 3/12) Tamara at Chickadee Gardens also posted photos and commentary from the PYG&P Show, which she much preferred to the Northwest Flower & Garden Show, mainly because there were more plants and flowers in Portland’s show.
• (added 3/10) Anna at Flutter & Hum was a judge of Structures and Furniture at the PYG&P Show and posts many pic of those very things, structures, furniture, some sculpture, etc.
• Fine Gardening magazine posted 4 Hot Design Tips from Portland Yard, Garden & Patio Show, with photos and suggestions based on designs at the show. (The four are split into two postings, with the second one here.)

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Be pleased with your real garden, don’t pursue the perfection of a picture. What you see in a photo lasted only as long as the shutter snap.
— Janet Macunovich

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What else?

The Connecticut Flower & Garden Show was held 19-22 Feb over a 3-acre space. The theme was “The Spirit of Spring.”

• Cathy Testa at Container Crazy blogged about it — CT Flower and Garden Show Photos — In Case You Didn’t Go Last Week — with photos galore. She includes landscape displays by local designers, quite a few miniature garden exhibits, photos from the floral arts competition, and a few of the plants for sale.
• Kathy Diemer at A Garden For All also posted a few snaps from the Connecticut Flower & Garden Show 2015, along with her (positive) comments on the show overall.
• No commentary here, but CTNow posted 84 photos, a mix of candids and photos of flowers, landscapes, and products for sale.
• Thomas Mickey at American Gardening (…with a love for the English garden) found one particular flower at the Connecticut show to write about, the primrose called Victorian Lace Primrose (Primula elatior ‘Gold Lace’).

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The Vermont Flower Show ran from 27 Feb to 1 March at the Champlain Valley Expo in Essex Junction.

Eva Sollberger reports, in a 6-minute “Stuck in Vermont” video, about the Vermont Flower Show, with interviews and images from the show.

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The Philadelphia Flower Show began 28 Feb and ends on Sunday, 8 March. It’s on a 10+-acre space. The theme this year is “Lights! Camera! Bloom!” (celebrating the movies, specifically Disney and Pixar movies). The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society has its own blog, with photos; recent posts relate to the flower show, with topics such as Five Pro Tips About the Flower Show, Flower Show Plants: Practically Perfect in Every Way, International Designers Set to Stun Show, and The Birds, the Bees, and the Butterflies.

• Pamela Copeland at Posh Palettes blog wrote two postings to give us a glimpse into the Philadelphia Flower Show, Part I, focusing on displays and plants, and Part II, looking at jewelry and collage made from organic materials as well as heirloom seed packet art. Her photos, with minimal commentary, tend toward the posh, as you might expect (Cinderella’s wedding!), and they are exquisite.
• More Than Ordinary Days takes us on a tour with lots of photos and commentary. Displays included are Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Finding Nemo, Tarzan, Parent Trap, Cars, Cinderella, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Frozen, and a Disney princess section. There’s also a butterfly exhibit!
• (added 3/15) John Boggan’s posting title, at DC Tropics, says it all for him: I hate the Philadelphia Flower Show. He suggests that the marquee “should read: abandon hope, all ye who enter here.”  Mainly it was the crush of the crowds, which prevented him from seeing many displays. He focused his time and attention instead on the  Hamilton Horticourt, “where all manner of beautiful, interesting, bizarre, and rare plants are exhibited and competitively judged.” Most of his photos are of these plants.
• (added 3/15) Claire Jones at The Garden Diaries divided her report into two posts: Lights Camera Bloom! Philadelphia Flower Show-Part 1, which covers, with mostly close-up photos, everything but the miniature gardens, which she shares in Lights, Camera, Action! Philadelphia Flower Show, Part 2.
• (added 3/12) Ashley Youwakim’s photos of the show (about a dozen), with her commentary, are at Garden Rant.
• 2 Little Birds Planning posted about a dozen photos from the show. Looks very lavish!

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I think having land and not ruining it is the most beautiful art that anybody could ever want to own.
— Andy Warhol

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The Portland (ME) Flower Show is ongoing, from 5-8 March, at The Portland Company on Fore St. Its theme is A Taste of Spring. I haven’t found anyone who’s blogged it yet. Only about 9,000 people attended it this year — compared to 250,000 at Philadelphia’s, for instance.

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“Humphry Repton, the leading garden theorist of the nineteenth century, defined a garden as ‘a piece of ground fenced off from cattle, and appropriated to the use and pleasure or man: it is, or ought to be, cultivated and enriched by art’.” ― Tom Turner, British Gardens: History, Philosophy and Design

(yes, those are knitted)

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The Chicago Flower & Garden Show is starting soon, 14 March through 22 March, at Navy Pier. Theme: “Do Green, Do Good.”

Update 3/31: Shawna Coronado posted Flowers Everywhere at the Chicago Flower and Garden Show with some introductory info and about 10 photos.

Update 3/31: Louise at Two Girls with a Purpose visited the Chicago Flower & Garden show and took pics. (Not much commentary.)

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The San Francisco Flower & Garden Show runs from 18-22 March. Theme: “Movies.”

Update 3/31: Saxon Holt at Gardening Gone Wild photographed the show, with comments (posted 3/25). He got to see the whole thing from a scissor-lift machine!

Update 3/31: Anne of Green Gardens also went to the show and brought back photos, including of the Pollinator Pavillon. She comments that “[a]lthough California is in a drought, it was interesting to note that many gardens featured water as a major component of their landscape design. It just goes to show how important water is for a garden whether its specifically for the plants or if it’s a part of the garden by design.”

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The Cincinnati Flower Show, at Yeatman’s Cove, is held from 15-19 April.

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And across the pond, The Chelsea Flower Show in London runs from 19-23 May.

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“Harshness vanished. A sudden softness

has replaced the meadows’ wintry grey.

Little rivulets of water changed

their singing accents. Tendernesses,

hesitantly, reach toward the earth

from space, and country lanes are showing

these unexpected subtle risings

that find expression in the empty trees.”

–  Rainer Marie Rilke, Early Spring