Sunday, March 22, 2009

Local Flower and Garden Show

I managed to talk Kim into attending the Boise Flower and Garden Show with me last night. He hadn't been in years.

The one display garden was created by Franz Witte Nursery. (For all of you reading this from larger cities, with larger shows, you read that correctly: ONE display garden is what we get in Boise.)
And since Franz Witte had the prestige of creating that garden there were plenty of these around:



If you're wondering, "Why the pink flamingos?" you can get that question thoroughly answered here.
Part of the answer goes like this:

"Franz wanted to do something to set us apart from other nurseries on state street, since there were so many of us, so he said "hey lets get a hundred pink flamingos and stick them out in the lawn one day and really freak people out!"

Well we found the suppliers of pink flamingos and called and ordered 100 of them. The minimum, however, was 120, but because of a mix-up, we actually got 120 pairs."


The display garden included a firepit, a fountain and had vegetable plants among the flowers.




There was a lot of talk about sustainable gardening. What exactly is that? Well, it includes organic gardening, water conservation, using renewable resources, among other things. Two good sources for more info:
Wild Wild Takoma and Casa Sugar

This "Eat Your Landscape" sign said it all:



These facts made me feel humble and I hope inspired viewers to plant a tree, or two, or three:



There were the usual garden decor for sale. I thought this bike was pretty.


There were plenty of bulbs to buy, a few perennials, and the usual orchids and bonsai.


























Kim thought this waterfall was clever; both inexpensive and within the ability of most people to re-create.





We stayed for the wine tasting. For $10 per person you received four tastings of the four wine options offered and a commemorative wine glass. Included was some live light jazz music. It seemed to be a very popular event.



Kim and I agreed that this show would be worth attending if you were new to gardening or new to the Boise area. For experienced gardeners you'll have to decide for yourself if the $5 entrance fee is worth the amusement.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

I have been to a couple of those myself, I really enjoyed it the first time, but the second year it seemed exactly the same, so I haven't been back. If only they could get in more that one display garden ;-)

Rosemary said...

Love garden shows , so interesting to see new ideas and that waterfall is really unusual.
Knowing how you love wine, bet you really went for the wine , garden show just a side benefit.
LOL

Bren Haas said...

This is a great entry. I love the rock / water feature display and and the green displays always catch my eye. LOVE IT! WOW... you all are lucky you have wine tasting at your home shows.

Thank you for sharing these photos!

Pat said...

Can't beat that price!
You never know where you'll find inspiration. Looks like you had fun.

Carrie said...

That looked like fun. I would love to freak people out with 100s of pink flamingos in the front garden! One would be odd enough, haha. We don't really have shows like that here in N. Ireland; we're still a little behind. I love the waterfall (great to see things you could re-recreate) but honestly I think I'd be at the wine section all day trying my luck at more than 4 tastings!

Thanks for visitng my blog x

joey said...

Sounds like a perfectly delightful day and well worth the $5 entry fee ... and look at this great post!

Genie said...

I'd love to go to a garden show but I dare not take my husband. He'd be impossible to live with!

Wine tasting at a garden show, cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wish Wes liked my bamboo, I want to plant it on the south side of the house where the sun hits our house during the day. It would save us so much money. It grows so much faster than trees, he wants to plant trees but it will be decades before any of those are cooling us off. Bamboo, on the other hand, would grow in a season and give us year-round shade. Something we could really use.