Spring Kick-Off at the Central Ohio Home & Garden Show

Once the home and garden and flower shows begin, you know spring can't be far behind. These shows serve two purposes:

1. They give us ideas for the coming season in areas of garden planning, landscaping, interior design, and home improvement.
2. They keep us busy during the days when winter and spring can't make up their minds and before you know it, it's time to plant!

Columbus skyline

On Wednesday, March 2, Mom, friend Sue and I drove to Columbus to attend the Central Ohio Home and Garden Show. It had been several years since we'd been there. It took us a little longer to make the trip, due to the flooding just south of Our Little Acre. We had to take several detours before finally getting back on our regular route to our capital city.

As is many times the case, this home and garden show was more home than garden, but there were plenty of garden displays and ideas to make the trip worthwhile. The theme was "Gardens That Rock," and the interpretation by each of the displays was fun to see.

Favorites included this patio design by Seely's Landscape Nursery, in the shape of a guitar. It wasn't so blatantly obvious when you were standing on it, although it's clear in the photo what it is.




The Columbus Landscape Association used live material to add a musical touch to their display:

The musical theme was carried through in the use of vinyl records for plant identification.

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This was a beautiful water feature that had some woodland visitors! Plants were live - animals were not. Whew!

I could hang out at this beach for awhile. Love the lighting and wall of water, as well as the use of stone. The design is called 'Rock A Hula' and is from Blendon Gardens.

It was here that I saw the world's first blue orchid. It isn't painted or dyed. It's produced using a special process that makes each bloom blue as it opens right out of the stem. More on this in a future post!

This design from McCullough's Landscape & Nursery, LLC won Best of Show. It didn't surprise me, as I personally love the clean, crisp architectural lines and colors. (The door is 'Baby Fern' by Benjamin Moore paints.) It has just the right details and isn't excessive in its use of elements.  It really sets the mood - calming, to me - before you enter the home.

A few of the container planters we saw:

Succulents for lunch, anyone?

Hens and chicks in baby-sized boots



Formal, but lovely.

The hallway between the home section and the garden section had 10 of the most adorable crooked houses, by Jeld-Wen. (The windows in our conservatory are by Jeld-Wen!) Wouldn't these be adorable in a children's garden? I think they'd also be great for chickens or a goat! (I'm still lobbying for chickens and/or a pygmy goat, but so far I'm not having any luck.)

These tiered gardens appeal to me, as a homeowner who lives in a super flat part of Ohio, where there is absolutely no variation in the terrain. This gives some vertical interest where there may be none.

Isn't this miniature garden lovely?  It's contained in a wheelbarrow!

Circa Plants had a number of varieties of heirloom seeds for sale. I chose a packet of Mini Chocolate Bell Pepper seeds.  This is an Ohio heirloom which grows 2-inch bell peppers in that delightful shade of chocolate red, similar to the 'Black Krim' tomato.

One of the highlights of the day was getting to meet Kevin Allen, marketing manager for State-by-State Gardening, publisher of Ohio Gardener magazine. I have written several articles for the magazine, with one of them being in the current issue (March/April), on container gardens.

There was a lot of interest and subscribing going on, which meant that Kevin was doing his job very well! One couple that subscribed asked if I would autograph my article, which was definitely a first for me! For a minute, I felt pretty special! :-)

If you'd like to subscribe to Ohio Gardener, please visit their website. State-by-State Gardening publishes many other state gardening magazines as well.

I didn't bring home one single plant from the show, but next up is the Fort Wayne Home and Garden Show, where I made up for it.