LysmachiaMoon's blog: Hagerstown Flower and Garden Show: bought some nice stuff!

Yesterday was the annual Hagerstown Junior College Flower and Garden Show. I have attended every year since it started....it sure has evolved. The first few years, it was awful. A few junky vendors of doo-dads and a lot of dealers trying to sell lawnmowers and chain saws. Then it started getting a lot better: some of the nicer local nurseries, better juried craft type vendors. Then the organizers started charging what I think are exorbitant prices for vendor spaces and the past couple of years, it's not as nice as it used to be. Too many food stands and too many art vendors. Yes, pictures of flowers are very nice, but I want to see PLANTS and buy PLANTS. This year was nice, but a bit disappointing because there was only one truly "garden" display by a very talented landscaping firm. The nursery that every year for many years has had a lovely garden exhibit near the entrance wasn't even there this year. I think this is yet another example of a GARDEN show being organized by people whose idea of gardening is a few artistically placed pots of annuals on their doorsteps.

I did however get some nice stuff. From my favorite nursery I got another hellebore (Merlin), a French pussy willow, a pot of primroses. A got two tiny pots of thyme (I know that the clump in the veg did not survive the winter and I'm not sure yet about the stuff in the rock garden). At a new this year vendor I got a white tree peony ($30). I hope this guy comes back next year. He said he had no time to prepare; apparently somebody pulled out and they called him to fill the space at the last minute. He had boxes of bulbs, roots, etc. no display, but nice stuff.

I also got to talk to a man who has opened a shrub nursery not too far from my home; he sells shrubs in 3 gallon pots for $25 each. No matter what they are: old standbys or the newest "hot" varieties. Will definitely be checking that out soon. Also got to talk to the landscaper with the fantastic display garden...we chatted about stumps. (I know it's a bit kitschy, but I really want one of those bubbling pot thingys that make steam that flows out over a pond of water....)

Also bought a box of Stuttgarter onion sets from a lawn care company's display...the woman I bought them from admitted she knew nothing about them. Nor did she know anything about growing the dahlia tubers that were selling (all this stuff was in boxes...looked like the kind you buy in supermarkets). See, this is the type of vendor I wouldn't let exhibit. They are fine as lawn care people, but they shouldn't be selling garden plants if they don't know what they are.

So, all in all, a nice time and got some nice stuff, but it's getting too "artsy" and "boutique" ... I think I'll write a polite letter to the organizers.
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On the home front, got the mulch raked out smooth over the asparagus bed. Did a little clean up of the flower border in the veg...too early to be sure what survived the winter, but I think I've lost one of my Johnson Blue geraniums and I know the thyme is dead. I think I need to lift that whole section of bed and put in better drainage. I'm very worried about some of the bulbs I planted last fall; too early to tell yet. The "Honeybells" yellow muscari are coming up though...
Mostly everything is still dormant and the soil is heavy wet muck so the best I can do today is a little more cleanup here and there and possibly some early weeding of the dreaded black cress that is already rearing its frilly little head everywhere.

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