CNY Blooms

Country Girl and I went down to the CNY Blooms Flower and Garden Show yesterday. We had a great day but I think it had more to do with the fact that it has been ages since we've done something together than the show. We were actually both a little disappointed. This was my 1st ever show so maybe my expectations were off.

So I'll start with the positives.

We both loved the display at the entrance to the show.


We really enjoyed Rebecca Kolls seminar. She had a great sense of humor and I actually learned a lot in a very short time. I'll be trying her tip to banish my moles and voles. If it works I'll be sharing it here. We also got a copy of her magazine that looked interesting. We both agreed that the show was worth it for her talk alone. I left my bag of goodies in Country Girl's car so she'll drop it at Mom's and I'll pick it up there.

We stopped by the booth of a local nursery so I could say hello to some past students and their family. The booth was absolutely mobbed. I was able to chat for just a couple of minutes with one of kids (who is now an adult) but not any other members of the family. I'm glad they were doing so well! I'll stop by the nursery in April when they open again.

Next we stopped by the Upstate Gardeners Journal booth. I'm quite embarrassed to say that I told Pat that I'd never heard of the Journal. Oops! Of course I have, I first learned about the show from their blog, Ear to the Ground. I'd just never seen the journal in print form so it didn't click with me while we were there. Jan was quite helpful and took down the information for our garden club. I'll be reading it as soon as I get my goody bag back. Check out their blog for pictures of the show that are much better than mine. Be sure to check out their pictures of the best large garden - Landmasters. When I was there you couldn't get far enough away for a good picture. The wood was stunning.


The Onondaga Historical Association also had a both. History and gardening in one place! We talked a little about their blog and some upcoming events.

We also ran into several members of our garden club, Gardening Friends, which was nice as I hadn't seen anyone since November.


On to the negatives.

The Syracuse Convention Center is quite large but they only used a part of the space. The booths we most wanted to see we're TINY. The press of people was so great that I had to pass on several booths as I just could not breathe. It also seemed dark inside. Country Girl found some wonderful wrought iron pieces for her garden at a booth that you could only get 2-3 people into at a time. They had great stuff but it took forever to get in and look and forever again to pay. If I hadn't felt so uncomfortable I might have bought something too.

Everyone had stone walkway and patio displays. Sadly they pretty much all looked the same. There was very little that seemed unique or better yet affordable.

I was hoping for some great flower design ideas. I was disappointed that most of the displays had plants that you'd never see together, either shade plants with sun or plants that don't bloom at the same time. There were lots of water displays and I did find these two that I might be able to do something similar with at home.




I have to say that this bulb display was great.


But what on earth was this monstrosity from the same display?


I'm sorry but this was just absolutely tacky.