The Lung Association Garden Show

On Sat., Mar. 5/05, my friend, Elaine and I went to the annual Garden Show at Portsmouth Harbour in Kingston-it is sponsored by the Lung Assn., but we had free passes, thanks to her daughter, who worked the cafe during the show. It was on Thurs.-Sun. this year. I went to the show 3 or 4 years ago and was very surprised to see how it has grown - lots of interesting booths - lovely plants and flowers - tons of items for sale. I bought some garden tools (and rec'd free Forget-Me-Not seeds) and a Pineapple Sage Plant. There were beautiful orchids - Cdn. Tire display sold some for $20 each. Cdn. Tire had one of the best booths, I thought, with lots of begonias, large house plants and shamrocks and information people as well. There was a Bonsai booth. There were Master Gardeners' there - a flower show had taken place and one of the members from my Horti club won a 2nd prize for her gorgeous arrangement. A lady was doing stained glass pictures - mostly, flowers and birds, and I thought her prices were quite reasonable. Lee Valley had a booth and they were swarmed with customers as they offered no GST and free shipping. Horti clubs gave mini seminars on such projects as - growing grasses. The statuary was amazing - St. Francis and angels and fairies. There were tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, primula, coleus, lots of greenery and fountains and floral arrangements and lovely garden furniture in the entrance. The Portsmouth Harbour building is a perfect venue for this show. We were also impressed with the children's artwork - grades 4-8, from local schools, in different categories, won prizes for their talents. They must have amazing teachers!
When we came home, I was inspired to dig out my seed trays and planted some petunias, marigolds, clematis, and shasta daisies. Hopefully, they will all grow - the clematis seeds were saved by my brother who lives in Calgary and I have had them a few years, but I will give them a try.
We had snow yesterday, some sleet this morning and it is raining now - the weatherman predicted freezing rain but non so far. It was -5deg. C. today.
Enjoyment: Looking at all the plants at the flower show and knowing I don't have to water them!!