Day 1 at the Central Ohio Home and Garden Show

What an exciting time of the year. While waiting for spring, my husband and I try to take advantage of anything related to gardening at all and we always look forward to going to this great show. We arrived before show hours and had to stand back in a waiting area until the announcement was heard over the loud speaker that it was time to begin our quest for spring. We were out of the gate and off we went. We quickly made our way to the gardens area where there were 16 gardens to explore. This year’s theme was “Art in Bloom.” We have a favorite garden and every year off we go to explore it before the line gets too long. This garden is the result of months of hard work by the Cedarbrook Landscaping and Garden Center. Every year this group puts on a fantastic show during this event. This year, their theme was “The Art of Bees Making Blooms.” This garden’s entrance was graced with Rhododendrons and Azaleas with an evergreen backdrop of Arborvitae. You walk through a giant hive with lots of information on how bees do their jobs in the garden.

Rhodys at different stages

There were bears, bees, and honey all over the place.

There was even a giant bee who got to pose for me!

Around every corner was a surprise of plant material. The biggest surprise was discovering a new plant named “Faxeus Liteus.” Check this out! I could not resist sharing this picture with you.

A plant of many lights

You had to be there!

I could not help appreciating all of the art that was integrated into the gardens at this home and garden show. Many thanks to Brenda from BGgarden.com for the opportunity to attend this show. Thank you for giving us your art of photography on your web site.

"Art in Bloom"

A Visit to the Great Big Home and Garden Expo

Tulips, crocuses, daffodils, oh my! We won..a pair of tickets to the Great Big Home and Garden Expo in Cleveland, Ohio thanks to Brenda Haas of BG garden. She writes a great gardening blog that I follow. This past weekend, my husband and I made the trip up north to check out this garden show. We were not sure what we would experience, since this is a new home and garden show housed at the Cleveland International Expo Center. A former home and garden show held at the IX Center switched locations this year and was replaced at the IX by this new show. We were not able to make it to the former show, now housed on the East side of town, but really wanted to attend one of them. Well, I have not won much over the years, but I really lucked out by winning tickets to this new show. We got in the car anticipating arriving around the time the show opened for the day. We made it! The gardens were better than we could have imagined. There were 20 different gardens inspired by songs, and most of them were very large in scale. Seeing all the colors and greenery took me right out of our typical February Ohio weather to another place. That magical place in the garden. Each garden had quite a bit of hardscaping too. My husband and I love rocks. One of the gardens even had the words Cleveland Rocks spelled out in rocks. Two gardens really had impressive features. One was inspired by the song "Red, red Wine". It had a stream of wine flowing through it. Another garden inspired by the song "American Pie" actually had an old Chevy in it, based on the lyrics "Drove my Chevy to the levy, but the levy was dry". Pretty cool! We were amazed by the sheer number of plants, rocks, water features, and sculptures too. The show had many sculptures which were integrated into and around the gardens. There was even a dedicated area where many sculptures were on display and for sale sponsored by RiverSpan. We had so much fun checking this out. We even took a picture of the Bartlett sisters, three pears. We are so glad that we were able to go. Many thanks to BGgarden.com! I would highly recommend this Home and Garden show to all gardeners.

Here are some pictures from our visit:

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Visions of Flowers

I am really missing my garden. I have forgotten about all those baskets of weeds that were hand pulled, insects that like to munch on the plants, and yes, all of the deer damage that happens regardless of my methods of attack. To help during this time of waiting, the catalogs are arriving and I am making lists. Every year I plan on buying, or hunting down, certain plants but I somehow, manage to lengthen that list as the growing season progresses. I just completed my online order with Bluestone Perennials. I love ordering from this company. Bluestone Perennials is an Ohio company which is a real plus for all of us Ohio gardeners. The company is family owned and its web page states that they have been in business for more than 35 years. I learned about them when I was in Master Gardener School and I order from them every year. A big thanks to my sister Cathy who has been sending me a Bluestone gift certificate for the last few years.

Right about now, I am dreaming in color. The uplifting color of the early spring daffodils. This is my favorite type of bulb. I can’t wait to see my old daffodils come back in their glory, and my new daffodils in bloom. But for now, I will just have to create a mental image and let these soon to be flowers enjoy the cold spell. A dear friend of ours, a Master Gardener, gave us some Cool Flame daffodil bulbs and we planted 50 more Ice Follies bulbs, so the yard should be a burst of color in early April. I can’t wait!

Well, looking over my garden this winter, I just happened to notice that the deer have decided to prune my "Early Amethyst" Beautyberry" shrubs. If the deer have to pick on something in my garden at this time of the year, it might as well be the Beautyberry. These shrubs need to be pruned in late winter anyway. It is hard to pick a favorite in the garden, but these shrubs keep coming up on my list. I feel in love with them while visiting our local botanical garden, Franklin Park Conservatory. I have a group of three now, but there may be more to come as I add to that growing list of “must haves”.

Early Amethyst Beautyberry after a deer lunch

A Snow Angel next to Sedum "Autumn Joy"

A Gardener’s Winter Retreat

I have been seeking out TV shows on gardening. Oh please HGTV, help me through this long period of waiting for spring. I look forward to watching Gardening by the Yard with Paul James on HGTV. Even the repeat episodes are a breath of fresh air, but I want more. In my search, I came upon an interesting show on Create TV which is broadcast on my local PBS station. Of course, there is the Victory Garden, which I am enjoying, but I discovered a new show called Garden Smart. I have enjoyed watching this show, and with the enthusiasm of a starving gardener, I recommend it to you. While checking out programs in my area, I discovered that there are several gardening shows out there, but you have to check to see if they are broadcast on your local PBS station. Click on the Gardening Page of Create TV to find a show that may interest you. It takes some searching, but for a hungry gardener in the Midwest at this time of year, it is refreshing.

Sunset in the Garden

I'm Wandering through the Daylilies Again!

Our Master Gardener group provides opportunities four times a year to help us meet our annual education requirements for recertification as a Master Gardener. Last month, our education took place at another wonderful gem we have in Central Ohio, Amity Abloom. Amity Abloom is located in Hilliard, Ohio. We had the opportunity to shop for an hour and then Charles and Cynthia Lucius, owners, graciously talked to us for two hours about growing daylilies. This is their third business season offering more than 550 varieties of registered daylilies in their sales beds alone. There are over 4,000 daylilies in the sales beds to view and select from. These beds are laid out in rays labeled with letters and rows labeled with numbers for specific plant referencing. Their gardens are full of: full/round, spider, double, and unusual daylilies. I did not realize that daylilies were classified in these catagories. I knew that daylilies needed sun, but was told that at least six hours a day is required. The best PH for daylilies is around 6.7-6.8. They need about 1-1 1/2 inches of water a week after the scapes emerge. Scape, was a new term for me. There are also four size of daylilies: miniature, small, medium, and large. There are early, mid, and late bloomers. This is a wonderful online source for getting your daylily questions answered published by the American Hemerocallis Society. I know I will be back to visit this wonderful resource right here in Central Ohio.
Our next mission is to create a daylily bed from our latest purchases. Oh...sounds like a new posting to me.

Here are some pictures from our visit:
(Pictures taken by our friend Connie E.)

Here we are---playing in the daylilies!