That's good news - I'm going on Thursday and want to hear the 1:30 lecture on veg. gardening. Anybody else on this forum planning to be there then? We could find others, which would be nice.

Carol

Anyone going from the south shore that would be interested in car pooling? I'm in Plymouth and would be more interested in going if I could share the drive.

Lisa

Glad to hear the positive review Ginny! If you don't mind can you tell me what parking lot you parked at and its cost?

I am thinking of going Sunday as this is the earliest I can go. Usually like to go when the show opens but it has to be Sunday this year.

Boston Globe web site has some photos and info... See link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Flower Show Photos at Boston.com

It was pouring rain with a cold wind so we splurged and parked directly across from the convention center in the Seaport Garage, I think they called it. It was $19 but my friend and I split it. There are several other lots just past this that are $12.

And btw, if you park in this garage, you take a very circuitous--but dry and warm--route thru a hotel to a covered walkway across the street.

My friend went today and gave it 5 stars.

This show is much shorter than previous years--it only goes thru this Sunday, March 28--so if you want to go, make your plans now.

Thanks Ginny for the parking info. I hope to get some good photos to post.

Getting there by public transportation was easy. Yes, it was smaller; but enough. The best exhibit, IMO, was Miskovsky's, with the outdoor bathroom and the tomato plants with actual tomatoes. It was the only exhibit that showed gardens beyond early spring plants.

Oddly, I didn't buy any gadgets. But I handled a bunch of hand tools and felt none were truly ergonomic for an older, tired grip. The food stand wasn't great (a few choices of small sandwiches) but I talked the guy at the "hot dog" (looked like North End sausages to me) end of the set-up into making me a sub filled with only the hot fried onions & peppers - delish!

In one exhibit I saw a different kind of oregano with small orange flowers and pale green leaves - got to get some, if I can remember the name of the variety.

Another interesting exhibit was Sadeck's, screened up to the ceiling and showed dozens of semi-tropical birds such as parakeets, parrots and a gorgeous pheasant.

As for the cut-flower and flower-arrangement exhibits, I never look at them. Too much like looking at dead things. I like my plants alive.

I'd rate the show a 7 out of 10. Good for a bad-weather day visit.

Carol

I went last night. It wasn't close to being crowded, so I was a bit concerned. I want this venture to be a success because I hope we can continue to have a flower show. A vendor I talked to said that she was happy with turn-out but I thought I heard another vendor complaining.

I wrote down the names of several plants that interested me and today I am a bit annoyed by what I learned. Mahoney's had a row of thuja plicata Whipcord planted side by side as if they were front of the border substitutes for a short ornamental grass. I was intrigued with the idea of using for such a purpose, but now see by further investigation that they grow to 5' by 4' size. A misleading presentation!

Similarly I wrote down breynia disticha from another exhibit, coming away with the impression that it could be hardy somewhere in N.E. I knew enough to be skeptical about a lovely variegated hebe.

I enjoyed the show last night as well. We were able to park at a meter on the street a short walk away. I think the meters are free on Sundays!

Enjoy!

I'll have to remember to go on a Thurs. night next time. We went Saturday morning and it was absolutely mobbed, almost to the point of claustrophobia. Lots of interesting exhibits, though I always get frustrated the way they show things in bloom together that never would be in nature. Anyone know what the bamboo was in the Mahoney's exhibit? I didn't see a label. That exhibit was interesting for some enormous--but fake--boulders that were amazingly realistic looking. There was lots of great stonework, a number of interesting water features, and some worthwhile ideas to steal. The marketplace was probably 70% non-garden things. I bought a very sturdy pop-up container and was very tempted by the Florian ratchet pruning tools, but ultimately passed on them. We also ordered a teak rocker from Benchsmith; we bought a matching bench from them about 3 years at the flower show and have been happy with it. These shows can get expensive!

Here is a link that might be useful: Flower show snapshots

Carol - Is the oregano you saw 'Kent Beauty'? That's one I think is lovely, but it isn't quite hardy enough for me here.

I guess I'm in the minority, but I was a bit disappointed in the flower show, and won't go back unless it's a larger size in the future. I'm not into shopping for fun and too many of the vendors weren't garden related to my mind. It also bugged me that the gardens weren't as separate from the vendors as in previous years. I did find that Sunday morning was a good time to go - traffic was light getting there and it wasn't too crowded until after 11:00.

The were 15 or so large garden spaces, and one of them was mostly birds. I didn't get that one at all . . . it really wasn't what I consider a garden. There were several quite nice gardens, beautifully laid out, nice plantings and a variety of stonework and water features. I enjoyed looking at those and would have been quite happy if there had been twice as many. However, I guess if I am going to spend 3 hours in round trip transportation I want to find more than 2 hours of things that I want to look at. It's unfortunate, since I too want the flower show to be a long-term success.

On Friday I went to UNH's greenhouse open house, and found that the time vs. enjoyment was a bit better balanced for me. I actually came home with a box of plants from that visit, and there were lots of informative displays, several display gardens and a half a dozen houses filled with plants.

So I guess I'll try to keep an open mind about future years, but also try to be better informed about the size of the show and what I'm likely to find there.

At first I also thought the show seemed small as NHbabs mentions. I then looked more closely at the the layout in the free program and saw that the show extended quite a ways back from where I first though. My opinion the show was awkwardly laid out with vendors on either side. Good thing I studied the layout as we would have missed the judged portion of the show, house plants, garden club bay window displays etc. which were located behind a wall that said restrooms. This part was very uncrowded so I wonder if people didn't know about it? I also thought the aisle space between the show and the vendors on each size was rather small and hindered movement and made it confusing where the show was vs the vendors.

We went on Sunday afternoon and it was quite crowded (only time we had for the show). We did go to a great talk by Carol Stocker on interesting garden nurseries (many family run offering unusal plant offerings) in New England with some intriguing slides to make you want to visit!

Since we were there quite late in the show we took advantage of a 50% off sale at vendor I've gone to in the past for intesting summer bulbs (dahlias, glads etc). A nice bonus for a late in the day, last show visit!

was the 50% off sale on Sunday at peter de jager bulb co a real sale or was it 50% off the whole show?

I thought that compaired to UK show as not as good but for usual flower shows in USA, which are more like patio homeimprovemnet shows, pretty good. The admision at $20 a little steep however.

Frank - just the last 2 hrs of show the Peter de Jager marked all prices down 50%. So it was great to pick up dahlias for $2.50 to $3 instead of $5 or $6. I think they wanted to just have less to take with them. I've bought from before and had good luck with his bulbs. I did just read that they are owned by John Scheepers Inc (CT).