Ft. Wayne Home & Garden Show 2011

Four flower/home and garden shows in nine days can make one dizzy and delirious with all the landscaping ideas and floral displays. And comparisons can't help but be made, but each of the shows that Mom and I attended had their own strong points. I wouldn't expect any of them to be alike, nor that a smaller town's show would measure up to a major metropolitan area one.

The Fort Wayne Home and Garden Show is usually the first one of the season here. It is long anticipated because once these shows begin, the gardening season follows close on their heels! This year's show was  as expected - a nice way to spend the day in the company of the fragrance of hyacinths and orchids and seeing a bit of what the local landscapers have to offer.

Arbor Farms Nursery did an outstanding job with their display on the right entrance wall to the garden hall. I remember being disappointed with last year's, though I don't remember who was responsible for it. (It wasn't Arbor Farms.) This year, it warranted a closer inspection. I liked the variety of plants used and the espaliered specimens.

Arbor Farms also had a whimsical elephant topiary at their vendor's booth. They've got other animal topiaries at their nursery and Mom remarked how cute one of these would be in the Children's Garden.

Elephant topiary by Arbor Farms Nursery

The display by Woodland Water Gardens was beautiful, as usual, although it has a similar look every year.

Woodland Water Gardens display

What really caught my eye were the horizontal line waterfall features by Triscape Incorporated. I'd seen a similar waterfall used the day before at the Central Ohio show and would love it if I had a place for one of these. They really were reasonably priced, too.

Several garden centers and nurseries were there selling plants, as was the Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory. The latter always proves to be a wonderful place to buy plants at extremely reasonable prices and once again, my willpower was non-existent as I passed through their booth. I purchased a yellow jasmine vine, an Agave, a bromeliad, and a couple of Lithops.

Yellow Jasmine

Bromeliad

One of my favorite stops each year is the orchid society's booth. They had several different ones for sale, and although I didn't buy any orchids there, I did come home with three from another vendor - two miniature Oncidiums and a Paphilopedalum.

Orchid in the orchid society's display

Orchid in the orchid society's display

Orchid in the orchid society's display

We went over to the "home" part of the show and tasted some of the dips and other food items. I ended up buying some olive oil and balsamic vinegar to mix for salad dressing and to use as a bread dip. I passed these by last year, but shopping while hungry always results in a sale for food vendors. I bought some powdered dip mixes, too.

In between the two rooms, Indiana Gardener had a display where they had several of their publications available for the taking. I got to meet the publications manager, Vicky Howell,  for the first time.

This month's issue features a photo of my forsythia on the cover as well as my article about forsythias. My own garden is the one featured this month, as a part of the "Welcome to My Garden" series (formerly called "Down the Garden Path"). You can read the magazine online here.

Yet to come: The Chicago Flower and Garden Show and more from The Philadelphia Flower Show!