I went to the Boston Flower & Garden Show on Thursday and had a good time wandering around. Here's a taste of some of the gardens, many of which were equally beautiful from all sides.

This first garden by the entryway was huge and included sophisticated stonework, a pergola, waterfall, and quite of range of beautifully forced leafy and flowering plant material.

In the Japanese garden, there was a well done moon gate, topped by a dragon composed of plant material, as well as classic plants and hardscape for this type of garden.

A NH designer created this minimalist patio which seemed like it would be equally at home in rural or more urban settings.
{{gwi:201541}}From Boston Flower & Garden Show 2013

One design included two seasons, winter and spring on different sides of the exhibit. (The winter bed seemed a bit redundant with what's outside right now, but was well done.)

As always there was a lot of water, from large pools and waterfalls to small burbling water features designed to provide masking sound and water for wildlife.
{{gwi:201542}}From Boston Flower & Garden Show 2013

This green wall was planted with a combination of culinary and scented herbs. On the opposite side of the pool was a covered patio.

Miscovsky Landscaping had an impressive display with fully leafed out Japanese maples, an inviting patio and a large antique fountain repurposed as a planter, among other features. He also had a slide show that included a lot of before and after photos of his work that were inspiring.

I spent only a little time in the potted plants competition and flower arranging rooms, but this arrangement will inspire my garden choices. It won the top ribbon, I think for all the flower arranging categories.

I liked the whimsical plant hats.

A final garden shot - I suffer from camellia envy, so this one caught my eye. The other end of this garden (out of the shot) in contrast, was quite wild looking.

The gardens seemed particularly well-designed this year and it wasn't too crowded to be able to move. I was impressed by the plant quality and the use of both varied green plants, woody material, and flowers. Everything looked quite full. I'm always a bit disappointed at the current size of the event since I spend as long traveling as at the venue, but happily I had a fascinating companion on my return trip on the bus (a blind hiker in his 50's heading into the mountains to climb a couple of 4000 footers) so it was a most rewarding day trip.