When it is so bad that it is good

I don't want to give away the best kept secrets of the San Francisco Garden show before some get a chance to see it but this year's show is a wildly entertaining.
There were several extremely well crafted garden set designs , a handful of some forgetable ones one one truly so ghastly that I don't think anyone soon will forget it.

If you want a sneak preview check out my blog that has a few more photographs and a bit more commentary.
http://deviantdeziner.blogspot.com/

I will leave you with this piece de resistance :

LOL - I've got the same photo. I love the pink hair, but she's definitely more suited to the Pet Forum. Here's the little dog's teddy bear friends.

Oh yes !
what would a four foot tall chysanthemum poodle with cotton candy pink ears floating in a tub of water and clear bubble wrap do without her
teddy bear contingency ?

It brought tears to my eyes .

LMAO!

That is hysterical. I can't wait to read your blog.

Ahhh, I see from your blog that I also had the same favorites. I was in awe of the under the sea display, I kept having to remind myself that these were succulents and not sea urchins, coral and ocean foliage! It sure did draw a crowd. My images are poor though, I just did the Auto flash thingy and it didn't work so well, it washed the colors out. Hope you don't mind my adding images to your post.

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The table setting was just gorgeous!

I couldn't even see the details until I got home to upload the images.

Sea horse

This was part of the same design but set up in the upper section behind the main display. A thick glass shower, smooth on the outside, deeply textured on the inside, reminded me of the swirling kelp beds. A simple copper piping and fixture, gravel at the base and there ya have a great outdoor shower.

Ah yes, the pièce de résistance, left overs from the Rose Bowl?

Lolly pop, lolly pop, oh lolly lolly pop!
(oh man, now I will be humming that all afternoon) :-(

I felt instantly transposed into an exotic continent with this beautiful display.

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Loved this carved container!

This was odd to me and set too high to properly see the design the flowers made.

Held the camera above my head, angled the screen to see the shot and then it came into view.

Interesting use of wine corks, hmmmm, I do have plenty of them too.

And wine bottle lights

I liked the green gate with the copper sink fountain in the background here.

And on the other side, the sheets of copper and piping made some interesting water features.

A few interesting uses of recycled containers and props

^*^

Another

Loved the wild flower and grass display, so many little details to see in the plantings too.

I liked these small circles of cobblestone, it was surrounded by the turf grass and not much else was inspiring, to me anyways.

Well, a different way to set a white picket fence, starting from the upper level....

...and looking down to the lower level.

A few pretty plants (kangaroo paws, anigozanthos hybrid 'Parrot Red')

anigozanthos hybrid 'Hot Fire'

Salvia Mystic Spires Blue, huge blooms

and the exotic orchid displays...

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and this 'Rosalind' tropical hibiscus that came home with me.

Didn't seem to be as many vendors this time, we managed to get through it all much quicker in the past.

Sue,
Your photography is amazingly wonderful considering how very difficult it is to shoot in under such poor lighting conditions.
Every so often when in conversation with a few of the high end profe$$ional photographers I get an earful of grumbling about the difficult lighting conditions that they have to work under to pull off a well balanced photo shoot and all the extra $$ equiptment that they have to schlepp in with them to create a balanced shot.

I like your poodle shot. It really captures how totally absurd this garden (?) was.
In all my years of going to this show , the poodle garden hit an all time new low.

This type of display garden makes me wonder where the quality control standards are when the show producers pick and choose which gardens to allow in .
Back in the days when the show was under the auspice of The S.F. Park and Recreation department the standards were much higher which lead to more quality designers applying to the show for consideration.
Back then you would see gardens installed by dignified landscape designers such as Halprin, Peter Walker, Royston, SWA, Leffingwell and others who have a reputation for quality design and installation work.

When professionals see this type of work being allowed in it lowers the bar thus leaving the professionals to think, " why on earth would I want to invest thousands of dollars and man hours into a show that has this low level of quality design and workmanship ? "

This is exactly the reason why so many of the higher end designers have not been seen at the Cow Palace venue. The bar has been set too low and by the looks of it , it is going even lower.

The public will eventually become apathetic and stop going to the show . Part of the draw to the show is for the display gardens and their supposed inspiration and entertainment value.
If there is no value then why spend $ 20 dollars for an entry ticket, $ 8 dollars for the parking ticket, and the cost of gas and tolls ?
For 30 - 35 $ I rather go on one of the many Garden Conservancy tours and go to a well stocked garden nursery for the day .

Thats exactly how I felt this year, I thought the past years displays were so much more interesting although I did enjoy that Undersea one. Even the seminar selection wasn't that intriguing, well for the Thurs. we attended anyways. My Mom and I usually do take in at least one and didn't this year. I noticed the smaller number of vendors too, it used to take us until late evening to get through them all, even returning again to the displays for a more thorough viewing and this time we were done by 3 PM and I only bought 4 plants, we used to have to make several trips to the purchase storage area. I just drove home a bit disappointed this year. Another poster mentioned that the most popular plant brokers are leaving the show, seems like mostly bulb people left now.

Great photos Sue. They turned out much better than mine. I too wondered at the garden with the poles and big red ball. The only idea I came up with was that it was an oversized dog park - the ball being a kong toy and the poles being.... well you can work that out :)

LOL
A dog park with and over sized kong toy and pillars of petrified ______ ??

I totally missed the spiraling flower detail. One of the pit falls of being vertically challenged ( sizing in at a gigantic 5'- 2" tall )

I'm 5'7" and I didn't see the flowers either!