While it took me an extra week to check with all of the folks (or ‘reporters’ as I call them) about their thoughts on Canada Blooms this year, I think it was a worth-while experience. I quoted an attendee at the 2011 CB Show a way back on March 27 last year only days after the announcement of the “co-locating” of the National Home Show and Canada Blooms beginning in 2012, as follows. “I have had several unrelated conversations in the past few days with ‘serious gardeners’ and industry members and all were disappointed in this year’s Canada Blooms. Some of the common comments were ‘not too many plants available’, ‘lots of trash & trinkets’, ‘display gardens a far cry from what was built a few years ago’, and ‘display gardens difficult to enter, confusing layout’.”

In that same item ( http://www.icangarden.com//document.cfm?task=viewdetail&itemid=9010 ) I said that I feared most for the volunteers who man booths for such organizations as the Toronto Botanical Garden and various specialized plant societies. I then quoted one of my ‘reporters’ who had e-mailed; “The most-often-heard complaint is similar to this one I received by e-mail last Sunday: ‘Looks as if CB will be going with the Home Show next year. Mentioned ten days. Toronto Botanical Garden have difficulty to manage what they have now and I cannot see them going ten days. It will become too expensive for several people in the market place. Volunteers are not easy to get so they will be stretched in this area.’”

However, while I said I agreed with all of those observations and other similar ones, I had to disagree overall on the length proposed. First, consider the venerable Philadelphia Flower Show which now runs eight full days every year and their Marketplace is sold out long in advance, with a waiting list of ‘qualified vendors’. Even the World-famous Chelsea show now goes 5½ days.

So now, let’s turn to what I’ve heard in various telephone conversations and e-mail messages about the first ‘combined show.’

Larry Sherk was the first to comment with a generally positive comment on Tuesday: “Layout & gardens are interesting, no masses of bulbs, etc. Some daffs & PJM Rhodos are starting to go already. Not sure if change-over is tonight or tomorrow. Won't be back myself.”

As it happened, the changeover was Tuesday night.

The second to comment was horticulturist and flower person par excellence, Rosemary Dobson, who said to me by telephone that she found the layout interesting, and that there were no really large gardens, but many, per-haps as many as 35, smaller ones. She personally liked that of the Parks Canada Playscape sponsored by Bienenstock and Parks Canada.

However, although I agree with her that Bienenstock does do great playgrounds for kids, most people do not go to flower shows to see children’s playgrounds. It was and is always one word: gardens, gardens, gardens!

Several people I chatted with pointed out that there was no fund-raising gala opening the night before the first day this year. General Manager Gerry Ginsberg was quoted as saying the reason for that was that under the con-tract with the National Home Show and Exhibition Place, they would not have been allowed to bring in their own food, and would have to depend upon the “caterers” at the venue. The powers that be decided that would not have gone over well, and decided to pass.

What should have happened is that they should have brought that up as one of their conditions before signing with the venue and National Home Show. Those kinds of exceptions can often be included if part of the initial discussions, not after the deal is complete. Chalk that up to inexperience!

One of the largest gardens was that of the City of Taipei in Taiwan, but it was, according to several reporters, not much more than a tourism promotion. That is too bad, because, had that been negotiated by the right show business people, it could have been a great garden display. My old friend Elvin McDonald used to do that kind of negotiating as well as the floral displays for that type of client in shows in New York, and similar efforts are made often in the Rose Bowl parade. Again, chalk that up to inexperience.

Let me spend a few lines on the not-for-profit organizations. Latterly they had been paying something over $100 for two chairs and a table from show decorator, Chairman Mills. This year, the backdrops were supplied by Mori Nurseries, and were of living English Ivy dividing the booths. That was a significant improvement and there were no costs to the groups! But, that is where the positive ends. As I said in my March 27/2011 piece on this site, the stretching of the show to ten days would present terrible problems for the not-for-profit organizations because they always depend on volunteers to ‘man’ their booths.

So, what was worked out was, as with many of the garden plants, a switchover half-way through the show on Tuesday night. All but two of the not-for-profit booths came out and different ones came in. The two that remained for the entire ten-day show were the Master Gardeners and the Ontario Horticultural Association. Many of the not-for-profit groups, were, however, not so happy! They were located in a hallway and seemed to experience difficulty in attracting ‘traffic’ to their booths.

If one looks through a series of photos taken at this year’s show (as I have, courtesy of Sam Milligan of Hamilton who has a massive number of photos up on the Webshots website) a number of things became obvious. One was that one of my favourite tropical plants seemed to be the plant of the show! Medinilla magnifica was being sold at the show at the Ontario Growers booth—three sizes were available starting at $19.99. A native of the Philippines, it is a plant which I’ve loved since I first saw it at the Belgium Royal Greenhouses at Meise, just outside Brussels, in 1982. Now, I seem to see it everywhere, in fact I noted it in bloom at Allan Gardens in To-ronto when I visited there in August last year.

Medinilla magnifica is very much like a grape vine, but if you are not able to supply it with a good deal of humidity, forget about trying to grow it. If you can raise the humidity in the area where you think you might be able to grow it (the main bathroom, for instance), then it is certainly worth a try.

I noted the Garden Club of Toronto had one of their famous Floral Carpet displays which I liked. And, another exhibit I noted had a lot of good rose bushes, particularly the Knockout series in full bloom. That can many times be a major challenge but it was accomplished at this year’s Canada Blooms show. Congrats!

During my conversations, I asked several people, “What were the crowds like?” The responses were all similar—“there seemed to be lots of room to walk around”—“it was a vast area”—“it was difficult to tell.”

We may never know!

One final item! That would be the complete lack of a major overall sponsor, such as Loblaw’s for three years, and Home Depot for about the same. Apparently they were not able to get such a sponsor and that will make a major difference to the bottom line.

Now combined with the National Home Show are we witnessing the demise of what was a great flower and garden show? To conclude, let me go back to what I said a year ago in March and at the beginning of this piece: “…consider the venerable Philadelphia Flower Show which now runs eight full days every year and their Marketplace is sold out long in advance, with a waiting list of ‘qualified vendors’. Even the World-famous Chelsea show now goes 5½ days.”