Re: Garden Show impressions

I have several related thoughts:
1. It's not a great garden show, if only because the
tidal wave of kitsch-for-sale drowns out the garden
and plant displays.
2a. The display gardens in the arena are taking
advantage of the opportunity to be theatrical, so
fanciful construction, lighting, music, plants, and
other materials get used that would never go outdoors.
2b. I feel there is a difference between the
conceptual terrain of the show and professional
recommendations for design and planting. Nursery and
designer/gardener recommendations are prescriptive. I
don't see the show gardens as prescriptive, but rather
imaginative--garden artistry without the outdoor
constraints.
3. I found the Living Green garden (the lush tropical
buddha one) one of the most captivating, and not only
because I'm a palm/subtropicals nut, but also because
it offered a nuanced and layered visual experience.
While many of the bromeliads were, as you said,
greenhouse-grown (I welcome comment from Mr. Feix),
and some of the other plants, like the Dioons, would
not succeed in San Francisco, the Howea palms and
timber bamboos were locally sourced and would create
precisely the same effect if planted in urban San
Francisco (cf. Tommy Church's Hyde Street residence).
As to irrigation needs... that's another story.
Established Howeas endure quite a bit of H2O neglect
in SF, but I doubt 3-story Phyllostachys could. Plus,
much of Living Green's business is indoors, and that's
part of what they're selling at the show.
4. The utility of the whole show to the average
gardener may be minimal. Aside from learning from
lectures and demonstrations, I can't imagine getting
much accomplished for my own garden in that setting. I
can imagine getting inspired - and that's where the
paucity of (new) medit-plant materials & design
dismays me.
5. Much more nauseating to me than moist small gardens
are real California water guzzlers, like golf courses,
cotton fields, lawns and rice fields. That said, as a
list subscriber, I'm also very attached to the
waterwise medit-climate natives, and dry subtropicals
and temperate species that settle in so well in our
climates.
6. Perhaps most nauseating to me at the SF Garden Show
is the repetition of plants year after year,
especially the lovely Acer palmatum and the scruffy
Phyllostachys aurea. I don't mind the Clivias.

Respectfully,
Jason Dewees
San Francisco

--- Sean O'Hara <sean@support.net> wrote:
> Our local San Francisco Flower & Garden Show came to
> an end this past 
> weekend, a huge event attended by thousands from
> around the Bay Area.  My 
> wife and I always help out at the Pacific
> Horticulture booth and this year 
> I also gave a talk (on the mediterranean climate).
> 
> Each year I feel more and more ambivalent about the
> large garden display 
> created for the show.  In discussions with others
> who are part of the show 
> or who attend each year, it is still unclear to me
> what these garden 
> displays are intended to do for the general viewing
> public.  I am all for 
> creativity, drama, impact, and feel that the show
> requires this in the 
> displays.  But so often these gardens are so far
> removed from what is 
> possible under out local conditions that I find it
> somewhat 
> nauseating.  One of the most beautiful (to my eye)
> this year was a huge 
> display with giant golden seated Buddha surrounded
> by lush tropicals, 
> including many huge specimen bromeliads that clearly
> came from southern 
> California and were no doubt greenhouse grown.  I
> think we should be 
> experimenting with more bromeliads in the garden as
> they are often very 
> appropriate, but these were not in this category.
> 
> All to often the plant material used in these
> display is arranged for color 
> or impact and represents combinations that would be
> nearly impossible to 
> grow in a garden in the same arrangement.  Also,
> designers must choose from 
> what is currently available as these 'plantings'
> show.  Too often the 
> plants used are not from the more interesting
> collections of innovative 
> growers who are more likely to have climate
> appropriate species.
> 
> Two years ago, our local branch of the MGS created a
> 'vignette' display 
> (small garden displays for non-profits) at this
> garden show that received 
> lots of good reviews, not only for its climate
> appropriate plantings, but 
> also because it felt like the kind of garden many
> people coming to show 
> would like for themselves.
> 
> I am curious to hear from anyone who might have gone
> to this particular 
> garden show regarding what they feel they'd like to
> see in the big, main 
> floor display gardens.  I'd also be interested in
> hearing about other 
> garden shows, in other places, and how regionalism
> or climate 
> appropriateness was addressed in those.
> 
> Regards,
> Seán O.
> 
> No. Calif. Branch of the Mediterranean Garden
> Society
> Seán A. O'Hara - Branch co-chair
> (510) 987-0577; fax (707) 667-1173; sean@support.net
> 710 Jean Street, Oakland, California 94610-1459,
> U.S.A.
>
http://www.MediterraneanGardenSociety.org/branches_CANo.html
> 


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