Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Indiana Flower & Patio Show 2008



With not a cloud in the sky and a hint of spring in the air (yay!), Mom and I drove the 2½ hours to Indianapolis to attend the Flower and Patio Show, held at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.

We'd never been to the show before, so we didn't know what to expect, but we both found it similar to other shows in recent years.

The focus was definitely on patios and their construction with stone, including water features and fire pits. There were some beautiful scenarios that I would welcome in our backyard if I had a few thousand dollars to spend. Still, there were details that I could incorporate on a lesser scale.







We spent about four hours walking through the displays, which followed the Hollywood theme of "A Red Carpet Affair."


"Under the Tuscan Sun"


"It's a Wonderful Life"


"A River Runs Through It"


"Swiss Family Robinson"


By far, the most elegant display was put together by
McNamara Florists and was an interpretation of Father of the Bride. It showcased the beauty of all-white flowers.







JP Parker Company Flowers had some unusual fresh cut flowers for sale, along with the standard favorites. Mom bought some pretty orangy yellow tulips for a friend of hers that's been under the weather.



















It's hard to describe the color of these glads and even the photo doesn't quite capture it, but they were unusual and lovely.














This is the bloom of the Leucadendron, which I'd never heard of before, but I love it. The foliage reminds me of a euphorbia, but the flower bud itself of something else that I can't recall the name of right now.














I've always loved the Capetown Stars, a.k.a. Star of Bethlehem (
Ornithogalum dubium), which is a South African native bulb.












From some of the other displays......







Having nothing to do with patios or flowers, there were sugar gliders for sale. Mom and I had never heard of them, but they were absolutely adorable. They're "pocket pets" originating from Australia and expensive.

To listen to the people hawking them, you'd think they were nearly the ideal pet. I researched them after I got home and that's not quite the story, but they were pretty unique and cute all the same.
Yes, that's a Cheerio he's eating in the photograph.

There were several vendors selling bulbs, seeds, and plants as well as tools and whimsy for the garden and the home. I walked away from the show with a ceramic pot, a triangular metal wind chime, and several packets of seeds.



Allisonville Nursery had a booth at the show and I knew it was on our way home, in Fishers, so we stopped in. It isn't stocked with perennials and the like for spring yet, of course, but there were several shrubs and trees to choose from.

Some large and really lovely Red Twig Dogwoods (
Cornus sericea 'Cardinal') were calling my name very loudly and I had to acquiesce to three of them before they would leave me alone.


I also purchased a small white ceramic pot with silk paper whites and another small metal pot with some dwarf spring irises. Their gift area is outstanding with a huge variety of items for just about every room in the house as well as for outside in the garden or patio area.

Each and every employee we talked to (and that was several of them) was very friendly and went out of their way to be helpful. Mom and I had a wonderful chat with Jeff, the owner, before we got back in the car to head home. We both agreed we'd love to see this place when they're fully stocked for spring and the summer planting season.


13 comments:

Sky said...

these photos are so seductive. i want our gardens to look just like these photos - i want it all and NOW! LOL...oh, it is so hard for me to see these kinds of photos or go to these shows...i want to buy everything they display and hire landscapers to redesign huge areas of the gardens!

now i am going to have to research that little creature. so cute!

Lisa at Greenbow said...

You certainly captured the essence of the show Kylee. Your photographs are much better than the ones on their web site. They should hire you to show their show.

That poor little Sugarglider. It just makes me sick when I see wild animals promoted for pets. I wonder how many have been taken from the wild. If they weren't so small and cute they would be left alone.

Your shop after the show sounds nice. I love the red twigs.

Unknown said...

Come on, spill it, Kylee... what are the little details in those pictures of the gardens that you're planning to incorporate? (I have some I want to incorporate... you have such a good eye that I'm wondering what catches yours!) :)

By the way, my boyfriend and his now-former wife had a sugar glider when I first met them. (She was very, very shy and they're often quite nervous around lots of people and bright lights, so your cheerio-eating one looks pretty well adapted to doing shows!) And it's strange that they had sugar gliders there, because there were some at our home & garden show, too. (The one at our show was not so well adapted... poor thing was shaking a lot, it was so nervous.)

Anyway, theirs loved my brown cable-knit sweater with pockets... lots of texture for her to clamber around on, and then when she wanted to rest she's sneak into my pocket and curl up. Adorable. :)

Gina said...

kylee - I love all the pictures and this is such a timely post as I'm still trying to pick out patio pavers.

Karen said...

Beautiful pictures, Thanks for sharing! If "I had a few thousand dollars to spend" is why I sometimes don't like to go to these things. But it's always nice to get ideas and see what's new.

Robin's Nesting Place said...

Kylee, I enjoyed the Indy show. I think my favorite scene was a "River Run Through It". The display for "Father of the Bride" was incredible too.

The sugar glider was cute, you got a great picture of it!

Kylee Baumle said...

I'm so very behind reading others' blogs and answering comments! I hope by Sunday night I can get caught up!

sky ~ I know exactly what you mean! I love the stone pavers and blocks and I thought that "couch" was cute!
The sugar gliders were adorable and you can't even imagine how soft they were.

Lisa ~ Oh my goodness! Thank you so much for your kind comments about my photography! If anyone ever accompanies me on a show or trip to a garden, I would drive them insane with my picture-taking. And sometimes I just don't want to do it so that I can concentrate on just looking at stuff. However, I do see things through different "eyes" when I try to photograph them, so it serves that secondary purpose, too.

After I got home and researched the sugar gliders, I was rather upset about them selling them there and touting them as being "the perfect pet." They were quite domesticated so I didn't really have an issue with that, but people need to be made aware of the tremendous responsibility they are. Not quite how they were being presented and that's not right.

Kim ~ Right now, my brain is just mush. It's been a really busy week and very tiring, due to us starting to incorporate some running into the training for the half-marathon. Right now, I'm hurting everywhere, I've got a headache, and I'm really tired. I've got a baby shower in the morning and when I get home from that, if I still feel like this, I think I'll just sleep all afternoon!

So.....to answer your question.....I can't even think of one thing I saw that I thought maybe I could incorporate. Oh wait, yes...the photo of "A River Runs Through It." I would love to have either a dry bed or a small trickle of a waterway up near the house somewhere, and we really could, but not until we get some other projects done. I really loved that scenario there.

The sugar gliders they had there were very very tame and not afraid at all. Just adorable! And yeah, they would jump from person to person and then crawl into the pockets the guys had on the side of their cargo pants. I almost got a really cute picture of one peeking out from the pocket, but when I got my camera there, he went back down in.

Gina ~ Oh you would have gone nuts with all the pavers that were there!

Karen ~ Welcome to Our Little Acre! Oh yes, I know what you mean. It's like when we used to go to Parades of Homes all the time. We could never afford homes like they had, but it was fun to look!

Robin ~ Mom and I enjoyed it, too. We're thinking maybe of making another trip down there sometime in the summer just to visit the garden centers or Garfield Conservatory, which we thought about doing, but we ran out of time. We also considered the Zoo gardens as was suggested. Too much to do in too little of time!

Anonymous said...

What a great trip with your Mom! I usually go with my Sister, but i don't know if we will make it there this year. Did enjoy the photo's though.

Carol Michel said...

Kylee, looks like I won't be going to the flower & patio show this year. Even though it is less than 30 minutes drive for me, there seems to be no time to go. I think it is almost better to come from afar and plan a whole day trip around it. But I did enjoy your pictures.

(The one thing I do not like about that show is how much they have there that is not gardening related, like sugar gliders. But it costs money to put something like this show together, so I guess they have to get enough vendors to "pay the bills".)

Carol, May Dreams Gardens

Shady Gardener said...

Kylee, What a breathtaking event! How can you take it all in without getting overwhelmed? It must Smell Heavenly! :-)
Good choice on the Red Twig Dogwoods! I'd like some of those, too. Beautiful for Winter color! Could you see a Cardinal sitting in one of those? Or would you? ha.

Benjamin Vogt said...

I'm moving back to Indiana. In Nebraska we don't get shows like that--WOW. So many ideas. I went to a "lawn and leisure" show this weekend--it had a few water fountains and one lame one with a circle of fire in it--way too stilted. And huzzah to red twig dogwoods! I just put up a shrub shopping list on ym site and want 7arctic fire--I already have 2 isanti; they are very cool, and support lots of insects / birds.

Victoria Williams said...

Love your pics of the garden show. Looks like a great time.

Yolanda Elizabet Heuzen said...

It looks like you had a wonderful day there with your Mom. It was good for you to be among flowers as you've been having such bad weather recently.

I hadn't heard of a sugar glider before and they are as cute as can be but I'm not going to get one. They need to live in the wild, not in homes in cages.

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