York’s
Pennsylvania Garden Show opens its doors – and gardens – this Friday, Saturday
and Sunday, featuring 10 display gardens built by local landscapers, some two
dozen seminars, more than 100 home and garden vendors and a garden-club flower
show.
This
year’s show moves across the York Expo Center grounds at 334 Carlisle Ave.,
York, taking place in Memorial Hall instead of the larger Toyota Arena (now Utz
Arena).
Doors
are open Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and on Sunday from 10 a.m.
to 5 p.m.
This
year’s theme is “Fairy Tale Gardens,” and many of the show activities wrap
around that idea.
Once
again, the Pennsylvania Garden Club Federation District IV will stage a judged
flower show within the overall show, focusing the floral arrangements on the
topic, “Once Upon a Time.”
View full sizeJudges evaluate the garden club flower show entries at the 2013 Pa. Garden Show of York.
At
Saturday’s Family Fun Night (5 to 8 p.m.), live storybook characters, such as
Humpty Dumpty, Little Miss Muffet and Little Red Riding Hood, will be on hand
during the hands-on activities.
New
this year is a Shoe Design Contest in which guests can submit shoes, slippers
or boots that they’ve transformed into fairy-tale footwear. The entries will be
on display.
And
show guests will be able to sign up to make their own teacup fairy garden
(Friday at 2 p.m., $25 fee) or learn how to plant a fairy-tale garden at home
in a Saturday seminar by Wendy Brister (1 p.m.)
The
new Memorial Hall venue splits the show into two main sections.
Enter
and turn left into the east section, and you’ll run into the 10 indoor display
gardens built by local landscape firms, including Cross Creek Farm, Hively
Landscapes, Inch’s Landscaping, John’s Landscaping and Strathmeyer Landscape
Development Corp.
Many
of these gardens include paver patios and walls, water features and
outdoor-living accessories in addition to gardens.
The
garden-club flower show is also in this section.
Turn
right into the west section of Memorial Hall, and you’ll find more than 100
vendors and exhibitors.
View full sizeGardeners shopping in the marketplace section of the 2013 show.
That’s
where visitors will be able to buy plants, get tree and plant questions
answered, check out new lawn mowers, peruse some curious garden art, sample
(and buy) gourmet foods and more. The full list of vendors is on the show’s web
site.
A
third main prong of the show is the talks, which take place in two locations
throughout all three days of the show.
Author
and radio host Mark Viette will do a pair of seminars (Friday at 6 p.m. on
garden design, Saturday at 2 p.m. on garden makeovers) at which he’ll give away
50 daylilies at each. He’s also slated to broadcast his show live from the show
floor on Saturday from 8 to 11 a.m. York’s WSBA-910AM radio station carries the
program.
Author
Kate Copsey is scheduled to do two talks – on English gardening history
Saturday at 12:30 p.m. and on vegetable gardening Sunday at 1:45 p.m.
Patriot-News/Pennlive
garden writer George Weigel will do two talks as well, both on Friday – at 11
a.m. on the questions gardeners ask the most and at 2:30 p.m. on the “20 Things
I Wish Someone Would’ve Told Me Before I Ruined the Landscape.”
And
ever-popular York florist Vince Butera is back again to do six flower-arranging
demos – two on each of the days.
Other
topics include beekeeping, growing roses, maintaining a healthy pond, growing
herbs and more. The full list with times is on the Pennsylvania Garden Show of
York web site.
Rounding
out the show are a host of other events, including music and dance
performances, working artists, a bluebird workshop (Friday at 5 p.m.), a spring
fashion show (Saturday at 6:30 p.m.), a Doggie Fantasies Fashion Show (Saturday
at 3:30), and a pair of three-course afternoon teas served by Red Lion’s Red
Brick Bakery and Tea Room ($15 fee, Friday and Saturday at 1 p.m.)
Tickets
are $10 for adults and $9 for ages 62 and up. Children 12 and under are free.
Advance
tickets reserved online are $9, and multi-day passes are available for $15.
Seniors
get in for $5 Friday after 5 p.m., and family members get in for Family Fun
Night on Saturday after 5 p.m. for $5.
Parking
is free.
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