Oh rats. If you were going on Tuesday, I might actually have gotten a chance to meet ya! Well, if one could find another person in that mass of people... Hope you enjoy it! My favorite parts are the judging tables and the vendors. Sad that it isn't the main displays, isn't it? ;)

Shoot! I was wondering if you would be going this year! Last time I went was on the weekend. Hoping Monday won't be so crowded?

The displays are totally mindbogging, but I'm with you, I want to hit the vendors! I want to look at individual plants and see the new gardening gadgets!

I can't wait! It's been awhile since I've gone - you went last year, right? Any suggestions of good vendors?

I've gone almost every year since 2006 or 2007, I believe, and this may be my last year getting to go, so even though I'd prefer saving money for my trip to Austin later in the month, I'm going to take this opportunity to go. I can't remember the names of all the vendors I check out, I tend to know them by appearance and location, as they seem to occupy the same spot yearly. I always check out the huge one right near the beginning of the vending area. You'll probably know it when you see it, and it's almost impossible not to check it out. I think I like Pat's Orchids (or Just Pat's Orchids? something like that...) and while I like to look at Silva's Orchids I often find what they are selling at another vendor for cheaper... I mean, as far as something I want. There's this herb farm too, that also sells sauces and jams, that I always seem to buy an herb or two from. I think there's this other vendor close to the front, maybe called Wedgewood Gardens? I do like their stuff, it all looks well grown and happy. And the place selling the miniature plants is definitely worth a look. Those things are so cute.

I'm planning on keeping the plant buying to a minimum. Mainly, I'm looking for replacements for things that may not have made it through the winter outside. It's hit or miss; they are hardy to this zone but container gardening usually subtracts a zone or two, and I don't know how my concrete yard affects them. I did add hardwood mulch this year, we'll see if that helped. I'm determined to have jasmine. No signs of growth yet but it is way early, so I need a backup just in case. Surprisingly (since I forgot to mulch them) my mums are starting new growth, and the little pansies I planted along with them in the fall never really died away, and so are now in bloom. They are cheerful little guys.

Hope you enjoy it! I gotta charge my camera too, and clear the memory card. Maybe I'll actually post the pics this year, I forgot to last year...

So, what did you think? No jasmine (officinale, not sambac) for me this year. Maybe I went too late in the day, but the herb place that I got it from multiple times before had very few plants for sale at all today, and very few varieties. So if I wanted thyme or bay, I'd have been in luck, but not otherwise :( I did, however, splurge on a budding stephanotis trained on a hoop. It's hoya-ish, right? Ha ha. I had one once but wasn't really sure how to take care of it back then.

Didn't see any hoyas for sale this year, but I actually saw some hoyas in the judging section, including one spectacular obovata, as well as a lovely Dischidia ovata.

I'll try to post some pics tomorrow!

Hey! The obovata was fabulous! I got pictures of it as well! Really makes me want to go to all circular trellises!

My favorite of the displays was actually the non_Parisian Irish display with the replica Stonehenge...which I now want!

The judging tables were by FAR the best part of the show...and the only place to see hoyas!

I only came back with 3 miniatures...and actually not uncommon ones! Variegated ficus, serissa and a dwarf pomegranate! Not a single orchid! Had hoped to get some carnivorous plants, but decided I could probaby get a better deal on ebay!

I have yet to download pictures!

I hope to see the pictures, I'm very curious.....

Thanks for sharing the information, is really good to be updated on the other side of the globe!

A few highlights. If Photobucket cooperates; it's been super slow lately.

Some pics showing off the theme, Springtime in Paris:

Spring flowers:

Hoyas:

Carnosa, variegated:

Carnosa, motoskei:

Pubicalyx 'Fresno Beauty':

The fabulous obovata:

This was called 'Dee's Big One':

A lovely Dischidia ovata:

Finally, not from the show, but from my concrete yard, a snowdrop:

Enjoy!

Oh my that Dischidia ovata is beautiful.I grow a couple of my carnosa's the same way.I really like the look.
Thanks for sharing you photos.

Cindy

How did I miss the Dischidia ovata?!?! Wow - it's beautiful!

Hopefully I'll get around to downloading pics tonight!

Beautiful pictures! I absolutely love the idea of the circular trellis. Can these be purchased somewhere or would they be fairly simple to make yourself? I have a few cuttings I would just love to train in a circle :)

Mel

LOL. I just found the answer to my question on an older thread. Now that I know how easy these are to make I can see a crafting day in my future!

Kelly, it was in the middle section of the display, raised up. Everything in front of it was tiny, so you had to get in close to check them out, therefore missing everything in that middle section unless you decided specifically to look up. I didn't see it right away either. I looked up to figure out where to go next - more displays or head to the vendors - when I spotted it!

Mel, I make mine out of this green coated wire that I found in the section where all the picture hanging hardware is located (I went to Lowe's). I actually make mine more oval shaped, which is better if you're tight on shelf space, but the circles are quite pretty! I have also made some out of black coated wire clothes hangers, but they can be a smidge unstable. I propped them up by clipping them to a bamboo stake.

Here's a couple of other pictures from the show:

A blurry Stonehenge...I soooo want this in my backyard!

I also want this life size cow sculpture!

Thinking man topiary:

Wish I had gone through the judging tables twice so I didn't miss anything!

Quinnfyre, what a wonderful tip about the bamboo stake. After looking at the older thread concerning the circular hoops my biggest concern was how sturdy are they once the plant really starts growing. A stake is the perfect solution. Another question I thought of, do you make the hoop larger in preparation for a lot of growth, or do you go with a smaller hoop? Thanks!

Mel

Yes, I make the hoop as large as I feel like I can get away with. On my shelves, that's not really very big at all. But at least I can keep wrapping them around and around. The tricky part is wrapping it without clipping any growing tips downward. Sometimes I just wait until the vine's long enough, sometimes I don't wrap all the way around and rewrap it later. Having a few that I started on a smaller hoop, untangling the whole mess while trying not to break any vines, and retraining them to a larger hoop, I feel like my life is improved by minimizing that as much as possible :)

Kelly, I took a picture of the topiary Thinker as well! But I particularly love how you caught that lady mid-laugh, on the right side of the pic. I missed Stonehenge and the cow sculpture. And I didn't get close enough to the peacock to see that it had those eyelashes! Too many people were taking pictures of it or with it. I felt lucky just to get a couple pics at all. It's interesting how different pics look with and without flash. I don't tend to use it at all. Makes for the occasional blurry pic but I prefer not to use it. With flash though, you can see all the little details of that bee (I think it's a bee?)

Oh, I love sarracenia flowers. I have some pics of those too. Hey, where's your obovata pic? :) I wanted to see if you got a different angle on it. I only took the one photo.

Your obovata picture is better.

Did you catch this? Saw a small group of people taking pictures towards the ceiling:

It was tough getting pictures in the display area! It was so dark and there were SOOOOOO many people!

Ha ha! No, I did not catch that!

Kelly, my obovata pic was taken without flash, and tweaked in Photoshop. I upped my contrast and saturation, maybe darkened it slightly. I often make these sorts of adjustments to my pics, perhaps it is ingrained now from yrs of working at a photo lab in addition to having been a photo major for a while. So your pic and my pic aren't vastly different, although it looks to me like the arrangement was slightly different between Monday and Tuesday. I can't imagine they'd move things around from day to day, would they?? Because in my pic there is no sign, and the carnosa to the right is below and slightly in front of the obovata, and in your pic there is a sign and the carnosa is on the same level, and to the right. Weird.

Wow- I didn't even notice the plants in different places! Good eye!

Wish I knew more about Photoshop and other photo adjusting software! It's on my to-do list to learn! Have been messing around with some online photo editors and turning pet photos into cartoons!

Photoshop Elements is not too expensive; it is basically Photoshop light. I think it is at most $120, and sometimes less... I don't think I paid that much for my copy. I got it for work a few years back. But I tend to use Photoshop CS2 at home, instead. I still use Photoshop Elements at work (a fairly old version, for some reason) and am occasionally frustrated by it. It is designed to be more user friendly for the average consumer, more simplified with some of the features removed. I notice their absence because I like to use those features, but I am picky about my color, though I try to relax about it when I am just sharing pictures where it doesn't really matter.

The most important thing to know: you can always undo your last step by going to Edit: Undo. This allows for lots of experimentation and no permanent damage, ha!