Garden Show Dreaming

So, the 2012 Northwest Flower and Garden Show came and went last weekend. At first I was going to pass on commenting, since there are plenty of other voices out there chattering away about this year’s show, mostly expressing disappointment: some nicely, and some less so! And we would all agree it gets a bit obnoxious to read criticism after criticism all the time. Another thing I’m noticing is that many other people (my “plant friends”) have the ability to make scathing criticisms sound nice and diplomatic, much more so than do I; reducing the chance that anything I present as criticism could be seen as anything other than obnoxious, even if meant to be constructive. So that would be one reason to stick by the idea of “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all!”

Then I had the idea that I might write something nice about what I liked about the show, giving criticism a pass; since there were, in fact, a few things that I liked and even found inspiring. A lot of people didn’t think the gardens were much to look at this year (if they could see them – a frequent comment was that lighting was inadequate), but I noted some very interesting water features that were pretty cool. The childrens play area continued to be good; at least my kid liked it. The section reserved for various plant societies, gardens and arboreta was good, even if a couple societies I would have liked to see represented were missing – the Cascade Cactus and Succulent Society, for one. And that is not necessarily the fault of anyone running the show, I suppose.

I also liked (conceptually, at least) the little cards that were distributed at the ticket booth to incentivize showgoers to participate in a survey to provide feedback about the show. While one could be a bit annoyed by the tactic of baiting people with offers for coupons from various booths (which were so scattered that it would take considerable effort to visit each one deliberately) to get them to participate in the survey, at least they deserve credit for doing something to try to feel out what people want out of the show to guide its future. But, to make it sound like the whole show was just fabulous in every respect would be kind of phony – and I think few readers who attended the show would find my commentary to be believable.

So here’s my idea to try to remain focused on being constructive and providing solutions. I’m going to spend just a little time fantasizing, shall we say, about what I would like the show to be. I’ll present my thoughts in the form of advice or suggestions for improvement that might be implemented by show operators, while acknowledging at certain points how I compare these ideas with the current situation (in which case, sounding critical cannot be avoided). Hopefully I’ll avoid the usual “The ____ was too ____. Wah wah wah.” style of complaining. However, I should emphasize from the outset that this is not necessarily intended to represent what everyone wants: it is just what I would like to see. I don’t pretend everyone else gets the same things out of the show that I do – nor should they, as we all appreciate different aspects of gardening, and for different reasons. So this is an entirely fantastical post, in which I invite the reader to share in all, some, or none of my sentiments. But here are some ideas that, if put into action, would make the Garden Show really, really awesome according to the standards of Ian.

I’ll start with the plant market, since it has so much potential. The plant market should be much larger, and should be the place in the Northwest – heck, this side of the Mississippi – to find the rarest and most exciting plants in the trade. Gardeners should be looking forward to their one chance every year to get hold of all the coolest, newest, and most obscure goodies for their gardens. (Heck, this idea by itself might even sell more tickets, if successful!) To that end, the show administrators should actively pursue the best, most prestigious, and most unique nurseries for the plant market. The nurseries should be tempted with an offer they can’t refuse! As it is, they seem to be leaving things largely to fate; and, between the economic downturn and society’s changing interests, fate has not treated the nursery business well the last few years. The plant market used to be pretty good; but still, I think, short of its potential 10 to 15 years ago. Every year a couple more nurseries drop out; and now, well, I’m sorry to say the plant market is a shadow of its former self both in terms of size and diversity of offerings. I appreciate, though, that the plant market is still in a prominent location in the show, rather than tucked away in a corner.

Next, I would be excited to see the show to do more to distinguish itself from “home shows.” This is actually related to the previous idea, since much of the space that ought to/used to be the plant market is now occupied by vendors of replacement windows and gutter systems. Dear show owners: people can find this stuff anywhere. There are home improvement shows all the time. The Northwest Flower and Garden Show is the second biggest in the country: how about differentiating to demonstrate that it is also the best? I would propose as a solution some sort of sliding scale where the most desirable nursery vendors pay less for a booth space and home improvement type vendors pay more and get last priority. Also related to this, artist and all other product vendors should be directly related to gardening. Vendors of scarves and jewelery, again, can be found at a variety of shows; and represent an opportunity for the show to differentiate by pursuing vendors with more clearly garden-related products to replace them.

Now, to the gardens. I feel that half the problem with the gardens are the themes chosen each year that the designers have to work with. This year’s theme was “A Floral Symphony.” Last year’s theme had something to do with stories or books, I can’t rightly remember. So here’s my idea. It’s true that most anything in life – music, books, attire, what-have-you – can be related to gardening. I would like to propose that these pre-selected themes be based on topics that are inseparable from gardening. I think this requirement would keep things a little more down to earth and less fantastical. Because what I’m seeing is that the gardens don’t always look realistic to people; and it is not always simply because of practical concerns (expense, maintenance): I think sometimes a “weird factor,” if you will, appears when a theme is chosen that results in certain elements being included in the gardens that overshadow the strong points. Gardens need to look like something someone would actually do. And in many places, they do: the question is, how to make it better? Hence my suggestion that gardens ought to reflect a garden-based theme. I don’t really have any specific examples in mind. It’s just a starting point to help the gardens hopefully inspire a broader range of showgoers.

Here’s another idea. I would like to suggest the addition of a large area where specimens of individual plants can be showcased and judged: sort of like they do at the county fair, only with much higher standards for coolness and acclaim. (Perhaps a few more of those gutter system vendors could be eliminated to make space for this – ha ha.) We have a place for showcasing container displays; which is great. We have a place for showcasing artwork. Why not a place for showcasing plants? These plants could be judged and the best given awards just as the other categories present at the show. This could also be a way to generate interest in particular new or rare items of great horticultural merit that deserve broader attention. I think a display of, say, 100 – 150 individually presented cool plants, that were truly unique and interesting; would be a lot of fun to look at, even if not all of them happened to pique my interest personally. Hopefully most of these plants would be produced by smaller and edgier growers and not just the big guys, so some method of regulating that to make it fair for everyone would have to be developed.

Finally, I would like to say that I have no serious complaints about the speakers line-up. I would just like to offer one minor suggestion, which would be that at least one seminar per day should be about exploring for plants in the wild. This is because I think people benefit from seeing the connection between gardening and nature in a way that goes beyond “landscaping for wildlife” and such: gardeners can never have too much awareness of the wild origins and habitat preferences of their garden plants, or the story behind their introduction and cultivated history. These talks usually draw pretty good crowds anyhow, at least the few that I have attended.

So, you folks organizing the show do all that, and then I’ll be really excited to come every year! I’ll even be a vendor with my own booth! Really! And I’ll talk it up to everyone. So, really now, what’s not to like about my ideas? Does anyone have more inspiring ideas to offer? What would get you excited to see the Northwest Flower and Garden Show? Not that anyone important is actually going to read this, but hey, let’s put it out there just for fun.

Once nice water feature.

Another nice water feature. The funny thing is I didn’t really notice that bird until I went back and looked at my pictures. What does that say about me, I’m not sure?

This cool rotating metal thingammy (not sure what to call it really) was probably the most oohed and aahed at thing in the gardens. I liked it too. The water feature behind it was also pretty cool. On the other hand, I’m not exactly inspired to go out and buy a rusty guitar sculpture for my garden.

The WSNLA Treasure Island booth looked good once again although we did not participate in it this year.

They did offer a few of our plants though, which appear to have mostly sold, so that was nice.

This Hardy Plant Society of Washington display of purple and black leaved plants was way cool. Just one problem, almost nothing in the display is hardy. As much as I loved this display I thought that fact was a bit ironic.

The North American Rock Garden Society display looked great and I enjoyed chatting with the fellow who staffed the booth. I will probably join this society soon; it’s very reasonably priced.

I leave you with this lovely poster from the Plant Amnesty booth: proof that not everything has to be inspiring to be worth seeing!