Pictures and Resources from the CT Flower & Garden Show
Hubby and I attended the Connecticut Flower & Garden Show this past weekend in Hartford because I NEEDED some spring! It’s not been a hard winter here, thankfully, but the dark, gray days and long nights just make me feel blehhh!
Sooooo many colorful flowers and green growing things! Sooooo much information and so many resources for gardeners! A great time was had by all, I assure you, and I can’t wait to share what we saw and learned!
I’m going to start out with the pretty pictures, because who doesn’t love pretty pictures? (Wanna see my New Year’s Cheer post that was ALLLLL pretty pictures? Go ahead, it will make you happy, I promise).
Pictures of Displays from the Flower Show
Here are just a few of the gorgeous displays we saw at the show. I’m crediting them if I know who created them (I wasn’t so good at remembering to keep track of who created the displays, sorry!)
Touchingly, this display was created in tribute to a close friend of their company, Charlie Dyer. The waterfall represents a stairway to heaven, and the plants and trees were apparently some of his favorites. If you’d like to check them out, this is Aqua Scapes of CT’s link. I’ve visited them in the summer, and if you have a garden pond and live in the vicinity of Portland, CT, you really should check them out.
I’m sorry I don’t know to whom to attribute this beautiful display, but wouldn’t you just love to sit and relax here after some hard work in your garden?
The above WONDERFUL barbeque and pizza oven setup was designed by C. Folsom Landscaping. I want this in my backyard!!! I told hubby he should build me a pizza oven, but he wasn’t particularly enthusiastic. I even offered to find him the plans and everything….Don’t worry, I’ll keep working on him. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a website for this company.
The two pictures above are from one landscape. This was my favorite in the whole show. I love their use of wood in the steps and path, the running water, and the hollow logs as well.
I soooo want a stream and pond. In my old house, we had a (very) small garden pond, but we haven’t managed to find time (or money!) to do one here. **sigh** Someday.
I believe this GORGEOUS landscape was designed by Gresczyk Farms from New Hartford, CT (although I didn’t take a pic of the sign so I’m not sure, DUH!)
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Resources & Companies you might like
Maine Garden Products
First and foremost, I met a lovely lady at the Maine Garden Products booth. This company sells greenhouses and other garden products as well.
What I love about these greenhouses is that they’re made in Maine of white cedar. They’re solar-powered and automatically open the roof to vent the greenhouse when it gets too hot, so you don’t have to constantly keep an eye on things, and you don’t need an outside power source.
The quality looks very good from the small sample house I saw at the show, and I felt that the prices were quite reasonable.
Now, to pay off some student loans so I can buy a greenhouse……..and a pond…..and a stream…..oh dear.
Gardening with a Madman
The same lovely lady at the Maine Gardening Products booth told me that she and her hubby have recently started a gardening blog (wow! that sounds familiar!). I checked it out after I got home, and have really enjoyed their posts. If you’d like to enjoy them too, head on over to Gardeningwithamadman.com and let them know I sent you!
Flower Power Farms
I also chatted very briefly with the man at the Flower Power Farms booth. Although he was busy and I didn’t get a chance to talk long, he was really friendly and I’m looking forward to a field trip soon!
They’re located in East Windsor, CT and have some special Saturday events coming up, including a Strawberry Jar Planting time (buy a strawberry jar and get soil and plants FREE! SCORE!) on April 13 from 9-3. There’s a lecture on roses on May 4 at 10am, and a lecture on hydrangeas on June 1 at 10am.
Coming up on June 8 at 10am is a Cooking with Herbs presentation (so maybe you’d better check out my Herb Growing post so you have a nice supply of homegrown herbs to use before you go!)
Connecticut’s Historic Gardens
I was so happy to stumble upon the CT Historic Gardens booth! There are 15 featured gardens across CT. I’m embarrassed to say I’ve lived in CT all my life and I’ve never been to any of these gardens. That will be changing….as soon as the temperature is above arctic brrrrrrrr!
I know you don’t have the brochure I brought home, but don’t despair, you can find all the GORGEOUS gardens listed on their website here. Seriously, check it out, it’s a beautiful website and such a lovely antidote to winter!
And if you don’t live in CT, you should seriously block out a long weekend and come visit us just to see all these gardens! CT is a relatively small state, I’m thinking you could do all the gardens in 3 or 4 days with some concerted effort. Give it a try and let me know how you do!
Fresh Start Pallet Products
This company, based in Hartford, CT, teaches the homeless carpentry skills, giving them a useful skill and new hope. They work with social services to assist with more than just a job, getting them rehab help and whatever else they might need as they transition to a new and (hopefully) better life.
Although their website doesn’t appear to be updated often, if you’d like to see them, you can check out their products here.
I can attest that their products are absolutely beautiful, as you can see above, and they have a nice (albeit small) selection. Above all, they’re working to give people a new start and a purpose in life.
I *Might* have come home with a few new additions
Bet you were wondering if I came home with anything. Welllllll…..maybe just a few.
OK, fine, five African violets, a Venus flytrap and a bonsai. But that’s all, I promise (I probably should have left the credit cards at home).
African Violets
If you have an African violet (or 5……or 10), and you need some help with how to care for them, you’re in luck. Here’s my post on caring for violets, and this one covers how to divide and propagate them.
Venus Fly Trap
This little Venus fly trap came home with me too. He’s just so cute!
I’ve decided to name him Arnold (as in The Terminator) because he had already caught a fruit fly within the first couple of hours after I brought him home! So cool!
Venus fly traps do need some specialized care, and I won’t go into everything they require because it’ll take too long, but if you’d like, you can check out this website for some growing help.
I’m kinda bummed because the one thing the website did say was that you shouldn’t let the fly trap flower, it takes too much energy from the plant. As you can see, Arnold is about ready to flower and I was really curious to see what it would look like, but I don’t want to kill him now that I named him, so I guess I’ll have to clip the flower stalk off. **sigh**
If you’d like to read about the other plant I’ve named, you can read Spike’s story here (otherwise known as, how to grow a grapefruit tree indoors).
Bonsai
I also bought this bonsai. As I was sitting here writing this, my naughty cat, Tazzy, just threw up in front of me (I know, TMI). But there’s a point. There were leaves in said throwup, and upon closer inspection (I know, I know, EWWW!), they are bonsai leaves. Grrrrr.….
The lady who sold it to me told me this particular plant isn’t poisonous. I can’t find anything online that says it is, but I moved it so little Mr. Tazzy can’t reach it again. Besides the fact that I don’t want to poison the cat, I don’t really want my plant getting an impromptu haircut every few days either.
I got some great pictures of other, more mature bonsai at the show as well. Bonsai have always fascinated me, so I’m going to do a post on bonsai, their history and care, very soon, so be sure to stay tuned!
If you’re not an email subscriber yet, why not head over here and sign up? You’ll receive instant access to my FREE Resource Library.)
If you have an appropriate board, I’d greatly appreciate some pins of the below pictures on Pinterest. Otherwise, as always, thank you for reading, feel free to leave me some comments, and have a crazy organic day!
Posts Related to Garden Show Resources
- Book Review and Giveaway
- African Violet Care
- African Violet Division and Propagation
- Growing Indoor Citrus
- Indoor Herb Growing
- New Year’s Cheer
6 comments
I absolutely love and adore that you name the plants – or some of them.
I haven’t named anyone myself – yet – but I talk to them a lot. So my girlfriend has named ME a flower whisperer.
I tried to grow a flytrap a couple of years back. Had the seeds delivered by mail (with seed for coffe plant) but neither of them bothered to grow. Maybe it’s too cold in Scandinavia idk.
I’m trying to steer cleer of flower shows because of the limited space I have – and I find it hard to say ni or restrict myself once I go.
But I do love them. My favorite is actually water deco and fountain display due to the sound of the water. Add the scents from houndreds of flowers….
Aahhhh- totally zen.
Take care
Linda
Flower whisperer! Love it!! I think flytraps might be tough to grow from seed, although I’ve never tried it myself. I love water gardens. We had one at our old house but haven’t had the money to install one yet here. One of these days, though…..
What fun! One of the things we miss living in such a remote location is the opportunity to see “live in person” what others do with their outdoor spaces and gardens. We’re always looking for ways to use natural elements in our landscaping, and reuse bits and pieces for unusual outdoor decorations. Really liked the look of that outdoor kitchen and pizza oven….
Oh, the pizza oven was calling my name! I have seen plans for a homemade one (I think maybe Mother Earth News??) and it’s definitely on my wish list one of these years. It just seems that there’s always something else to do that comes first (this year is expanded veggie garden space and painting the front porch and shutters- quite a large project in itself as we have a lot of windows).
This looks like a wonderful day! I can’t get my Mr. to go to things like this with me, so I have to force myself to go alone. I sure with you lived closer!
I was most enamored with your pictures of the one that used the wood rounds for stepping stone and had the hollow logs, although the very first one that looked like a natural wooded area with stream was a favorite of mine also.
I’m sure this is as close to the CT flower show that I’ll ever get, so thanks for sharing your pictures.
🙂 gwingal
You’re welcome! I wish we lived closer too, I need a garden buddy (no one in my “real” life likes to garden, LOL). Hubby will go, but it’s not his fave thing to do so I tend to rush through and not see everything I would like.