flower show

This year, as always, I visited GardenScape – an annual flower and garden show where I live in Rochester, NY (Upstate New York). This year’s exhibit featured 20 gardens artistically landscaped in an "Eye of the Garden" theme (inspired by trompe l’oeil, an art genre that involves creating two-dimensional images that look 3D). And as always, the show was full of dramatic flowers, fantastic foliage and tons of easy-care gardening ideas.

Here are some of my favorite pics. (Click here to see more on my Flickr account).

Anthurium, Phoenix palm and foxtail lilies – part of an ikebana (Japanese flower arranging) exhibit on the way in:

Some vintage-style seed packets from Rochester, NY’s oldest retail store, Crosman Seeds. With folks returning to veggies, it would be nice to see seed companies like this have their day in the sun again …

Monochromatic gardens can be stunning, as is the case with the red echoes in these tulips, geraniums, holly berries, gladiolus and framed garden "art."

Close-up of a velvety, red orchid - I think it’s a cattleya? - part of an exhibit by the Genesee Region Orchid Society.

Natural stone sculptor D.A. Spencer hand carves glacier rocks into these natural waterfalls for landscapes.

Chinese quince bonsai … That’s so cool when the plant’s been trained and pruned to stay small, but the fruit is large because it’s really a mature shrub or tree …

Chinese wisteria bonsai:

Loved the texture of this Japanese plum yew … I’d never seen one before and it didn’t even occur to me this could be a yew.The green-yellow contrasts nicely with the blue-grey, too …

Wow … loved the phormium (New Zealand flax) sitting in a bed of black Mondo grass! This would be stunning in my garden with the new burgundy-black Black Adder^TM Phormium I’m going to be planting!

This mammoth water feature had a digital image projected onto it … Is this the future of outdoor rooms?

These carnivorous pitcher plants are using their beauty to catch their next meal …

Here are some good companion plants for pink hydrangeas in containers – Wandering Jew and purple heuchera …

Ahhh… my favorite underused garden plant – heather – with white hyacinths, white-and-green coleus, copper-burgundy heuchera, yellow tulips and hot-pink-flowered rhododendron.

What a great idea for a patio – a grouping of the same pot, in a rainbow of colors. (If I had to choose one, though, I’d go with the turquoise one in the middle. Turquoise is, after all, the Pantone Color Institute’s "Color of the Year" for 2010, and it always makes me feel like I’m on vacation next to the blue waters of the Caribbean).

Mixing ornamentals with edibles is a hot trend right now – hence this display of conifers, lavender, tomatoes, daisies and lettuce by the Monroe County Master Gardeners Program.

And awww … who could ever pass up this perfect gerbera daisy?

Hope you enjoyed the pics! See you back here next time for more easy-care gardening!