The
flowers are blooming, the water features are flowing and some 120 exhibitors
are ready to talk gardening as the 2014 version of the Pennsylvania Garden Expo
gets under way today at the Farm Show complex along Cameron Street in
Harrisburg.
Did
it scare away the cold temperatures?
Maybe
not quite, but this year’s 3-day show features 11 very spring-looking display
gardens covering more than 55,000 square feet inside the complex’s Northwest
Hall.
Blouch’s Landscaping of Harrisburg,
for example, built a covered pavilion that houses an outdoor kitchen, patio and
fire pit, all surrounded by a stream and blooming rhododendrons, azaleas, witch
hazels, daffodils and tulips.
Earth Tones Hardscape of New
Cumberland has a backyard retreat with a fireplace and twin basalt fountains
gently oozing water. The landscaping around it, designed by Ruth Consoli,
features a mix of yellow, white and green spring perennials, evergreens such as
spruce, holly, cypress and boxwood, and flowering woody plants such as dogwood,
cherry and winter jasmine.
And last year’s Best in Show winner,
Hummel’s Landscape of Harrisburg, is back with a display that includes an
outdoor kitchen with travertine paving, a koi pond, two styles of overhead
shade structures and beds of blooming bulbs, perennials and shrubs.
Other landscaper firms that have
built gardens include: The Greenskeeper of Palmyra; Levendusky Landscape of
Mechanicsburg; Nature’s Way Nursery of Lower Paxton Twp.; Utopian Landscapes of
Harrisburg; Strathmeyer Landscape Development of Dover; Dreamscapes
Watergardens of Lebanon; Daniel J. Reed Landscape of Harrisburg; Davis
Landscape of Harrisburg, and GoldGlo Landscapes of Millersburg.
Most
of the display gardens include landscape lighting for when the show dims the
lights periodically to show what the gardens look like lighted in the evening.
Many
also include water features.
Some
of the other highlights at Garden Expo 2014:
*
A judged, 2,400-square-foot flower show within the show called “Musical Magic,”
presented by the Garden Club of Harrisburg and the Penn-Cumberland Garden Club.
*
Some 120 vendors and exhibitors, offering such fare as bonsai plants (Nature’s
Way Nursery), herbal products (The Rosemary House), garden books (St. Lynn’s
Press), plants (Stauffers of Kissel Hill), gardening accessories (Lewisberry
Gardens and Gifts) and more.
View full sizePa. Garden Expo shoppers in action.
*
Dozens of gardening talks and seminars throughout all three days at three
different show-floor venues.
* Central Penn Parent Family Night, slated
for Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m., which features hands-on family activities
throughout the show.
The
Pennsylvania Garden Expo runs Friday and Saturday, Feb. 21-22, from 10 a.m. to
8 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 23, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tickets
are $13 at the door and are good all three days of the show.
Senior
citizens (ages 55 and up) get in for $8 on opening day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.,
then all active and retired military, police, firefighters and first responders
get in at no charge opening day from 5 to 8 p.m. (all other adults get in for
$5 during those hours).
For
Central Penn Parent Family Night on Saturday, adults are admitted for $5
between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Children
12 and under are free at all times during the show.
Farm
Show parking is $8.
Harrisburg-based
Journal Multimedia, best known for publishing the Central Penn Business Journal
and Central Penn Parent magazine, operates the Garden Expo.
PSECU
is show sponsor, and Watson Supply Inc. sponsors the display gardens.
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