Valentine’s Day may be the biggest event in the late winter calendar, but what really gets the gardener’s heart going is the chance to be somewhere warm, humid and green. Unless you work in a greenhouse, or you are flying to a tropical destination, there are only two ways to do this: Go to the Buffalo Erie County Botanical Gardens any time of year (the “Night Lights” show is especially exciting this month) or book your dates for a flower show.
You don’t have to be a gardener to go to a flower show. In fact, sometimes the people who aren’t gardeners have the most fun. That’s because they aren’t compulsive about taking notes, scrambling to catch every speaker and determined to memorize every plant name.
Those non-gardeners or light-hearted gardeners just breeze along, snapping pictures or smelling the roses (and hyacinths and narcissus), feeling good in the springlike atmosphere.
Or, like my husband at the Philadelphia Flower Show – produced for 100 years by the wealthy and long-established Pennsylvania Horticultural Society – they walk the show for the overall beauty, a little shopping and then – faster than some of us – enjoy a beer and oysters or knockwurst (or a zillion international delights) at the train station across the street. (Every show has somewhere nearby for sitting and sipping and studying the program. Watching the gardeners with their armloads of treasures is equally diverting.
Seriously, though, if you are a gardener and have never been to a flower show, you are missing social, shopping and educational delights. Our own Plantasia, produced by the Western New York Nursery Landscape Association, may not be the Philadelphia show in size, scope and displays, but it offers a solid lineup of speakers and demonstrations and there is a lot to learn, free with admission.
Nearly all flower shows have classes, and sometimes nationally prominent speakers and recently published authors.
For the first-timer: Find the speaking schedule online or get one as soon as you arrive, and build your day(s) around the must-see programs. (Unlike other lecture situations, speakers in these shows are mostly not insulted – I can speak for myself among them – if you choose not to stay for the whole talk. We know you have shopping to do, and not every topic is for everybody.)
Second tip: Walk around the whole show once, fast, to decide where to allocate your time. Don’t get bogged down in miniature terrariums when your passion is new annuals or garden design.
The shopping is a pleasure in every garden show. In Plantasia, local garden centers and independent vendors pack the prettiest examples of their product lines and plants into 10-foot spaces, in the hopes you’ll buy now and come to their shops during the season.
In the Toronto, Philadelphia and Southern or West Coast shows, you’ll see national and international products represented – items you might not see at home. Our garden centers send staff to these shows to scout for products they should be carrying; tell your garden center folks what you loved. It’s a lot easier to judge a tool or statue with your own eyes than through a catalog, and to try on flower-decorated Wellies or garden hats in person.
What will you shop for? Beyond garden tools and props, you’ll see hardscape or landscaping products (from pavers to pergolas), some outdoor furniture, gardeners’ clothing, usually books, and always jewelry (because, after all, the majority of garden show visitors are women.)
The plants are the best part of it for some of us, as you can see and take home potted herbs, tropicals, forced bulbs, spring-planted bulbs, and some forced perennials for planting when the weather warms. (You can bare-root some plants from Canada, but in most cases you’d be better off just bringing home ideas.)
So go to the show, to feel spring in the air, or for serious learning and shopping.
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