Friday, February 19, 2010

NJ Flower & Garden Show

This post is my personal opinion only. It in no way reflects the views of Rutgers Gardens or any of its staff. I am not a spokesperson for Rutgers Gardens.

The flower show was not as disappointing this year as it was last year. Granted, there were still fewer display gardens than prior to the recession but the ones that were there were more elaborate than last year.

Water features were abundant. I loved this one:


Yes, I know, I cut the top off but don’t you just love the “greenhouse” behind it? It was full of plants, both inside and out.




My favorite fountain was this one:


There were lots of lions & tigers & bears, oh my! I mean, turtles, owls and frogs:




Ikebana continues to fascinate me despite my congenital inability to arrange flowers in an attractive manner. If it were up to me, I would have thrown these out because they were crooked:


Then it was on to the Garden Club exhibits. I saw some African violets that were new to me. I can’t make up my mind if I like this flower form or not:


I definitely like these variegated leaves:


Another photo of orchids which I love but would never try to grow:


And would you think of making this into a terrarium? I wouldn’t.


I found myself very attracted to the cacti and succulents. I can’t grow them at home. I always overwater them, killing them with kindness:




The judges and I had our usual disagreements. Let’s play “You Be The Judge”. Here are the four entries:


Entry #1




Entry #2




Entry #3



Entry #4


Would you have chosen Entry #3 as the winner? Is there any live plant material in it? How about flowers? This is a flower show, right?

Weirdly painted plant material seemed to be popular with the judges this year. Here’s another first place winner:


Looks like something out of a bad scifi movie, doesn’t it?

I have never understood two-part arrangements:


When I saw this, all I could think of was that the designer’s hose cart must have broken and this was her solution for attractively storing her garden hose over the winter:


Thank goodness for the kids’ arrangements. Isn’t this dragon fly amazing?


And how cute are these guys?


The judges and I did agree on one winner:


You can see all of my photos of the flower show on Flickr.

5 comments:

Christine B. said...

I had number 2 picked out as the big winner, but what do I know? Some of those arrangements were bizarre, to say the very least. I liked the sleepy little owls and the turtles.

Thanks for the tour!

Christine in Alaska

OldRoses said...

Christine, I was leanging towards #4. It was so bright and sunny.

kate smudges said...

I can't believe #3 won. It certainly wasn't my choice either. I'd lean toward #1. I like the greenhouse with the beautiful ironwork on the rooftop. Succulents are my plant of choice. Other than repotting them infrequently, I water them rarely when indoors during the winter months. Then I haul them outdoors and they fend for themselves (unless we're in drought). They seem to enjoy this treatment. Maybe they think I'm mean for neglecting them so, but so far it's worked. (The only problem is that I keep adding to my collection & am running out of room on windowsills.)

OldRoses said...

My own collection of houseplants is expanding to that I either need bigger windowsills or more windows!

AMIT said...

Just great post about flowers.

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