PUPPET BARBUDA wants to see a new flower show competition division. Six gardens with the same design executed in whatever plant materials & hardscape & focal points & furnishings, a designer fantasizes..
What? For example, use the design, above.
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1. Instead of lawn, above, a flagstone terrace. The 4 cone shaped evergreens (2 are in shade to the right)? Instead, 4 trees. The low hedge? Becomes a tall evergreen hedge with a low flowering hedge. Entering the hedge, on axis, place a bench. Etc...
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2. Instead of lawn a gravel terrace with harvest table and chairs. Replace evergreen hedge with understory trees. Hang chandeliers from tree branches over the harvest table. Etc...
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3. 4. 5. 6. What's the point?
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One idea, endless permutations.
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PUPPET BARBUDA wants Flower Show gardens to be relevant to those paying entry. Who? YOU. Plant societies & other non-profits seem to be getting it right.
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PUPPET BARBUDA thinks Flower Show gardens have become testimonials to the type of gardens Landscape Design companies wish to SELL.
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Nothing wrong with making a buck. Ha, Flower Shows are dying across America. Remember?
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And PUPPET BARBUDA cares about that.
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Other ideas, please, to save the Flower Shows of America?
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Woof xo T
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Pic from Anson Smart.
5 comments:
Never been to a garden show, never want to go to a garden show. Even my garden loving mother and my first-order green thumb father never went to garden shows. Go to a garden? Yes of course.
And, I think this hardscape business has run amok. Only the most affluent can build decorative stone walls and patios. Now there are outdoor kitchens, fire pits, outdoor rooms, drapes, timed sprinklers. There is no limit to what you can do in the magazines and TV shows. Makes ordinary folks with ordinary yards and budgets feel very small.
And that 'small' feeling, Terry, is why Flower Shows are dying across America.
I saw HGTV on a blog as HgTV. Too bad garden shows strayed from average gardeners. Loss of audience, loss of revenue.
You gave me an idea for PUPPET BARBUDA's Flower Show idea. Put a financial cap on it. $500? $250?
Pushing competitors to spend less than the max. as part of judging for awards.
XO Tara
***HGTV has abandoned the "G".... The emphasis is on real estate and perfectly awful interior design. Therefore, they have lost this gardening viewer.
***Terry is absolutely correct. Flower shows, for the most part, fail to realistically address the average gardener. There is simply no reason to attend. Public gardens (The Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center!), private gardens, and lovely nurseries feed my soul.
***I applaud your Flower Show concept of 1 basic garden layout/various interpretations. Divine inspiration could be had with gardens celebrating such diverse designs as billowy English cottage, native and wildflower, formal rose, children, colonial, Old World, whimsical, etc. Indeed, I would purchase a ticket.....
***I adore your blog. Thank you for brightening my days.
I think your idea sounds fabulous! I think your "flower show" is different than my "flower show"s, but I too, see them dying. Why? Well the flower shows I have entered, and I have only entered a few.... but I have made something that I thought was beautiful, distinct and unique. Once I lost to a giant pink flamingo made out of carnations and another time I lost to a big box garden with angels and plants and silk flowers with plaques that looked like a mini-cemetary. I think all flower shows could use some guidelines and rules......
happy day!
I'm in agreement with everyone and I'm one of those "ordinary folks with ordinary yards and budgets" that Terry mentioned.
I would love to see a garden show with usable ideas for the average gardener.
Since sources for plant material, locally, are the garden centers at home improvement stores, I'd love to see a show where the materials could only be those found in Home Depot, Lowes, etc.and with a $250 budget. That would be a challenge! I love new garden ideas, and unusual plants but would love to see some fresh, new designs with "ordinary" plants.
Sorry, I'm off in a different direction.
I do wish HGTV would have more garden programs. How many outdoor kitchens does one need?
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