Re: what makes a good garden show

**"* P* D* <m*@dargan.com>**

Dear Dan, 

For over 12 years, I've exhibited at the Southeastern Flower Show in
Atlanta with landscape, education and horticulture entries. I now
coordinate the landscape and education judges and sponsor a trophy. It
is much easier to be on the giving end than on the receiving. I still
enter horticulture (cut herbaceous and woody specimens) and won 35
ribbons this year, fixing my competitive needs for awhile.

The show draws over 55,000 people, but barely breaks even. In fact, its
been struggling for over two decades to make ends meet. Its not the
Philadelphia FLower SHow in breath and scope, but it certainly has very
high quality of exhibits. I think there were about 25 landscape entries
this year and 15 education exhibits. 

There used to be a mulch "donation" based on the square footage of the
exhibits. HOwever, that dried up recently when the major sponsor went
into receivership (Pikes- very sad) due the drought in Georgia. Pikes
used to provide evergreens to act as perimeter hedging for each exhibit
and took them back to sell at the end of the show.  

I love doing exhibits...it is one of the few out-of-the box
opportunities for landscape designers ( I am a landscape architect).
HOwever, none of the exhibits are sponsored monetarily and this results
in the larger design-build landscape contractors dominating.
Fortunately, we have some good ones, but the newer firms really struggle
to deal with the restrictions to simply build an exhibit in downtown
Atlanta in the World Congress Center. My exhibits cost at least
$35-40,000 each out-of-pocket and much more was begged or borrowed. That
does not include labor and my time in paper work and on the floor.

Parking is a bear, but it is available as is public transportation.
There is good food, evening entertainment and some razzle with local
celebrities and great lecturers. A very good market place offers
everything from books to plants and garden bits and pieces. It is fun to
simply be there. 

Date- timing is everything...if it rains or ices, bad box office. The
facility is enormous (and hideously expensive) and people have trouble
finding the show! The last week in January is a tough time to have
plants in bloom, but forcing seems to take place anyway. Where there is
a will there is a way. ADvertising is a challenge this close to the Dec
holiday season and is not a set date, so people get confused, again. 

I'd be happy to put  you in contact with the very dedicated founders of
this show.  www.flowershow.com is site.

All the best, 

Mary Palmer

On Mon, 24 Mar 2008 07:02:28 -0400, loisdan@juno.com said:
> Hi Dan,
> 
> I would say timing is everything. Although I'm sure it is a pain for the
> landscapers who create the demonstration gardens, holding a garden show
> at the last possible moment before our own gardens show any signs of life
> should guarantee hordes of attendees, if only to smell the fragrance of
> narcissi.
> 
> I'm of the opinion that gardening has more to do with dreaming and the
> subconscious than with practical matters (see
> http://loisdevries.blogspot.com/2007/08/transformational-power-of-gardeni
> ng.html ). Shows need to create the right "atmospherics," so that
> attendees can visualize themselves creating something similar at home,
> whether they do it themselves, or pay someone else to do it. Mood is all
> and Philadelphia is expert in this --- the gardens are large enough to
> "step inside" and be enveloped by the space.
> 
> It is easier to say why I've STOPPED going to a show, than what would
> make me go to one:
> Getting there is a major production, involving lack of sleep, rush hour
> traffic, lots of time, or lots of money.
> Too many vendors unrelated to gardening.
> Not enough vendors with PLANTS (why are we there?).
> Too few demo gardens in a space that is too large for the show (looks
> unsuccessful and "empty," when a flower show needs to look lush and
> full).
> I have endured bad parking, bad food, bad anything and never minded
> because, around here, a gardener on the hunt in March is virtually
> unstoppable.
> 
> Regards,
> Lois
> Visit http://loisdevries.blogspot.com
> 
> On Sun, 23 Mar 2008 18:55:00 -0400 "Dan Clost" <dan.clost@sympatico.ca>
> writes:
> > I'd like to poll the list, with the hopes that planners of garden 
> > shows 
> > "listen" in to your erudite responses. I suspect this might generate 
> > an 
> > article or two for more than a few of us.
> > 
> > What makes a good garden show? Displays, vendors, speakers, some 
> > magical 
> > combination of all three? Is it parking? What about good food? Is it 
> > timing? 
> > Is it gift baskets in the hotel room?
> > 
> > I ask because the last few I've been to have been disappointing. 
> > They're 
> > long time mainstays in the gardening scene but they seem to be stuck 
> > in a 
> > time warp, i.e. "It worked 10 years ago so it should work today, 
> > too."
> > 
> > We must have aeons of experience amongst the lot of us, so we should 
> > be able 
> > to nail it down pretty well.
> > Thanks,
> > Dan
> > 
> > Dan Clost
> > The Good Earth Columnist
> > 
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-- 
Mary Palmer Dargan, MLA, ASLA, APLD, RLA, CLARB
Author, Timeless Landscape Design (Gibbs-Smith, Feb 2007) is now in its 4th printing making it a HOT design book.
To order an autographed copy: contact www.dargan.com. 
 800-454-3889 ext 4 & 404-354-1715 mycell  Dargan Landscape Architects

Tip: Visit English gardens by Sir Harold Peto at Buscot and Iford in Wiltshire and Avon, also must see Sir Roy Strong's formal garden at the Lasket in Herefordshire (by appointment)

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