Boston Flower Show March 13-17

Ok, my people! The Boston Flower and Garden Show: "Seeds of Change" will be taking place from Wednesday, March 13th, to Sunday, March 17th at the Seaport World Trade Center on Seaport Boulevard in Boston, MA. Check the MassHort website: www.masshort.org
for information about hours and admission prices.
Yours truly is once again the Queen of Amateur Horticulture and we expect to bring back our Junior Horticulture category this year in addition to all of the other exhibit classes.
Come on down and see the show. Remember that you have to go all the way to the back of the hall to see Amateur Horticulture, Photography, Ikebana, Structures, Miniatures and the Design Divisions or Flower Arranging. We'll be glad to see you! I will post pictures once we have the exhibits staged and judged.
Thanks,
Martha

Wish I could, but a little far for me....I'd have to put Suey in the kennel :>(

Which is why I am taking multiple pictures. I would love to get back to the Philly Flower Show and to RI and Portland, but I can't seem to make it there. Hopefully next year.
Martha

Martha, I look forward to your pix.

I was a bit disappointed with the Connecticut show last week, but it may just be a sign of the financial times. Not nearly as many displays or actual plant vendors as in the past. Still a great place to look at gardening tools and the like and to ask questions. Door to door it was almost 80 miles for me, and I'm getting too old for these longer trips by myself.

I hope you have a great time as the Queen of Amateur Horticulture. You are a great source of information and interest, and everyone can learn something.
Marcia

Each show is different. We have always tried to emphasize amateur participation at the Boston Show. I get hints of what the other shows are like from our judging panels and some of our committee members who are also judges for other shows. The Newport Flower Show in June is usually pretty neat.
I am going to a camellia show out at Tower Hill in Worcester on Saturday. Hope the weather holds!
Martha

I have my minivan packed with my boxes of flower show stuff, entry forms, little pencils to fill out the forms, clipboards for judges, my deck chair because all the chairs at the Seaport are those totally uncomfortable after two hours banquet chairs. Got the chains to hang the hanging baskets, should anyone enter some. I'm ready!
Martha

Have lots of fun, Martha.

Going to the Portland Flower & Garden Show tomorrow, the theme is TIMELESS this year.

I hope you both have a great time. Looking forward to your reports.

Take lots of photos....I need ideas!

Unimpressed....that about sums up the Portland Flower Show!

1) A garden shed that was really neat......completely self contained by solar power.
2) A lamp one of the vendors made with a star gazer lily on it.
3) Every time the birds mouth opened out poured water. It was cute!
4) Nice little seat in the woods
5) Monkey Flowers were planted around the sitting area.

The train display was one of my favorites! The train went around a little town across a wire bridge and the details were awesome. They actually had lettuce growing in the miniature greenhouse and an outhouse at the base of the forest rangers tower! LOL

1 - 3 )MY other favorite display had an old Ford Edsel Truck, i'd guess it was somewhere in the 1930's.
4) This was a primitive setup....it reminded me of Brian & Josh's camping spot!! LOL

They had a living wall with fairy village inside....this was the only fairy display! :(

Gerber Daisy I fell for
Begonia my hubby was drooling over and I didn't get the name!! Anyone recognize it please let me know.

Took this for Bill.......just cracked me up!! Need a stone scarecrow???
Last 4 are my primrose that jumped in the car with me when it was time to go home. :) I also bought 5 COBRA lily bulbs so it wasn't a bust!!!!

The solar greenhouse is wonderful....I would drool over that begonia, too...love it.....

Pixie, dear,
Were you there yesterday? So was I! I liked how many things were made of wood, which Maine has a lot, and rocks, which Maine also has a lot but I think they should have amateurs and flower design too. and the stairs to the snack bar were killer! but there was no line at the bathroom. Also I love my giant hanging $6.00 begonia which had its own seat on the shuttle bus.
Martha

This message was edited Mar 10, 2013 9:11 AM

No Martha I went on Friday and yes I too liked the wood products. One beautiful teak wood bench was only $100....if I could of figured a way to fit it in the X-Terra it would be here right now!

plant labeling was a bit haphazard and the rooms the plant displays were in were really too dark. I did like the witch hazels that several displays had, especially the burgundy colored one. There were also some lovely lilacs in bloom and Cornelian cherry or Cornus mas, which is a very early bloomer. I know this because I have one in my garden. It has teeny bright yellow flowers and comes out way before the forsythia. The ones at the show were smaller of course, mine is about 8 feet tall and is a bright yellow torch when it blooms. If we get some warmed up weather, I could see this at the end of the month. People don't use it much down here. here are some of the ones I liked. The little bridge was cute. The train was moving too fast for me to get a good picture. I liked the exhibit with the truck!
I liked the shuttle bus to the parking lots.
Martha


This message was edited Mar 11, 2013 12:17 AM

This message was edited Mar 11, 2013 12:18 AM

Nice...I like the last photo, would love to do something like that in my shade garden.....

Love that stone scarecrow!!!!

Well, my friends, Boston Flower Show 2013 is in the bag. Personally, I got two seconds, a third and some honorable mentions, though one of these was because the judges simply couldn't comprehend my creative genius in one category. Sigh. It's ok, the ivies that I had in it were great show quality and that's what counts! I am also not really upset, because my Amateur Hort exhibit was full of really great plants and that's what I am in it for.
I will be posting pictures shortly.
Jen, rumor has it that Philadelphia got new staging {i.e. the benches the plants sit on} this year. Do you have any pictures that include views of the benches? We here in Boston are looking for new ones.
Martha

You did very well, Martha....

Martha, I hope you are resting up. Seems like it was worth your efforts! Nice being recognized for that effort. Now you can unload the van.

I am thinking that the Portland show had the same malady as the Hartford show: that cost was certainly a factor for both exhibitors and vendors. Hartford had always been the best treat despite the 2-hour drive because there was so much going on and so much to learn. Not so much this year.

Thanks! But I really am more proud of our exhibit in particular and the show as a whole. Let the pictures come forth! Boston Flower and Garden Show 2013 "Seeds of Change"!
Martha

More pictures. Of interest here, the first picture is of what we call "Structures" which are wooden frames that are supposed to be large bay windows, small bay windows and plant rooms. The amateur exhibitor is given the structure area and a direction. believe this one was North facing large bay window. The exhibitor, this time the Noanett Garden Club from Dover, MA put in this beautiful display of terrariums. Some of the plants in them need to be in the closed terrarium environment but some don't.
the third picture is a Structures plant room done by the Buxton Branch of the American Begonia Society. Check some of these begonias out! You won't see many of these coming and going unless you shop regularly at places like Logee's! and even then, you won't see them.
Martha

The begonias are awesome.....nice to see the tiny children there!

some more. As the twig is bent, the tree is inclined. The first picture is of the student exhibitors from Lunenburg High School in Lunenburg, MA. They are participants in the school's horticulture program and the lady on the right {oops! on the other left!} in the peach sweater is their teacher. They had 25 exhibits entered including 3/4's of our hanging basket entries. Champion among them were two streptocarpus they had raised from cuttings. next is a view of the Amateur Horticulture exhibit room looking down the cactus and succulent bench. the fourth picture is of Climbing Onions. These provided our giant #1 FAQ of the whole show. and the answers are: 1. no, it is not an onion. succulent related to hyacinths. 2. no, it is not edible. In fact, like digitalis, it has heart stimulant compounds that can kill in sufficient amounts. 3. South Africa. 4. A couple of these exhibits came from Logee's nursery in CT and you can get them online. We must have answered all 4 of these questions about a million times over the course of the show, and I only worked three whole days in the exhibit hall.
The last picture is of one of our newest exhibitors. He works in the Seaport World Trade Center and repeatedly came through our exhibits for the last three years and we would talk plants with him and he said he had some nice ones. We urged him to bring them on down and this year he did! He is standing next to his Jade plant 'Gollum' that got a blue ribbon first time out!
Martha


This message was edited Mar 20, 2013 11:27 AM

Outside weather was decent. Lots of folks brought the little ones in strollers because you could get from parking or public transpo without having to stagger over snowbanks. We also had children's entries in Amateur Horticulture with fairy gardens. And a cactus seedling terrarium that one kid made. They ate it up!
Martha

That's wonderful news....

Thanks for sharing, Martha. Sounds like you did great. Nice for people there was a break in the weather so they could go and bring kids. I'm also looking for inexpensive but natural garden benches or else I'll make them with rocks ;)

Rosemary,
I saw this one down in Florida a couple of weeks ago. You could use it for inspiration, perhaps. It is made of local Florida stone, but I am sure you could rework it with what you have available.
Martha

that is a cool stone seat which i am a sucker for as i have 8 here, always on the look out for large flat stones.

I like it too, but so far no suitable stones.