Jill, I had a pic of that "bulb" in bloom on my phone. Some of the individual flowers are done, but I know someone will know the name of it. And I will feel SO stoopid......LOL

Got it! "Crinum Lily"

Well, ok, so it did NOT start with the letter "E". Those bulbs are just so HUGE. If I didn't already have a nice speciman, i would have bought one.

I'd probably have bought one anyway... Terri & I are not known for restraint when we're together.

We're flying to the Boston Show tomorrow. DH says we shouldn't buy anything. Right, like that's gonna work.

Lucky you!! You should come to Philly next year... actually, you should have come THIS year, as I bet that was a record-low crowd. Terri and I mentioned a couple of times how you'd have loved the situation Tuesday!

Nope, restraint doesn't seem to be in the vocabulary when Jill and I are on an adventure! I keep thinking about those concrete fox statues that we admired the first day and purchased right before we were heading home the second day, knowing full well that we would somehow have to transport them a few blocks to the car LOL. What WERE we thinking Anyway, I'm glad we did and now I'll enjoy years and years of having it in the garden and the memory associated with it.

Jill, I'm loving all your great photos from the show.

I gave Jim his fox statue... he remarked on its significant weight... I said, yeah, and Terri got one too... plus we found some other heavy stuff... and had to tote it all to the car! It was easy to get carried away when we were plunking stuff down on the scooter floorboard and hanging it from the armrests...

(He also really loved it.. He was entranced by our neighborhood fox a couple weeks ago, watched it sunning, napping, grooming for some time out in our garden. I've seen it around, but he hadn't. A family denned under another neighbor's deck last summer!)

I bet I would have enjoyed the show with you two. Loved it during the big snow of 2014. Vendors were giving things away. Lightweight things, that is. No concrete statues.

I've often thought about taking a roll-about carry on bag to things like that. It would be handy just to carry coats, cameras and stuff (purchases?). When we're in Mexico and want to take the taxi to town to go shopping we do just that. You end up losing nothing and stuff isn't hanging out of open bags. I imagine it would be difficult to grab a carry on, especially loaded, and run.

Don't let him fool you, he carried the beer back to the resort in that piece of luggage.

*** ORCHID UPDATE ***

Holly has dibs (or backup dibs?) on a Den. Violet Fizz 'Luna'. My neighbor Rhonda wants one, too. I think I can probably talk Ken into adding a fourth at the same price (rather than another set of three), so if anybody is interested, speak up! You can LMK through Saturday; deal is only good until the plants run out. If I won't see you until the swap, I'll ask for one that's in sheath rather than bud/bloom, so you don't miss the flowers.

@Aspenhill -- it's purple!

continuing the "tour"

Holly, I always think of you when I see succulent wreaths or "pictures"... These were nice, and one had a lot of that chartreuse groundcover that's so tough... that would be easy to use!

Terri, help me out... I *think* this is day 2, but there are no sensible dates on my photo files (missed something in camera setup)...





one of the commercial walk-thru displays had these vertical doub;e sided Heuchera plantings. I was more interested in them than in the bragging about how :green" the company was, clearly, as I can't remember who it was!


Hah, I did wander back to the Horticourt! From huge to tiny...

Love that new camera of yours Jill. I have never seen such good photos of the show. I'd say they definitely have the edge on low light tech. I often think I could get a better effect with my SLR, but it would mean metering each situation or shot and setting speed and aperture. It's been ages since I've done that.

I seem to remember bottles of wine and Baileys finding there way into that bag also.

Right. Terri wasn't having much luck with the auto settings on her SLR... the second day she just put her camera away and enjoyed the show. I kept snapping away like a maniac.

My pink Sony (the one that's on its last legs) didn't too too badly, but I'm definitely getting a higher percentage of good photos now. I'm enjoying the 30x optical zoom, too!

Here are a couple of photos with the older camera from the last show I went to, in 2013. I seem to remember doing more post-processing, too.






Trying to find something that's the same subject, probably similar lighting...
'La Paz' photo from 2013:


'La Paz' photo from this year:

Our second day found us rested and wandering around the "edges" of the hall, taking a look at things we'd entirely missed the first day! I think this "return the next day" thing might become a new tradition.














We both took a long look at this nest/seat, thinking about where we could put one in our gardens... I have a brush pile along the path through my "woods" (my fence-row of trees & shrubs along the back edge of the yard), and with a little rearranging...

I've often thought 2 days at the show would be ideal. The best we've done is spend the entire day at the show and stay somewhere nearby before coming home. We're not in shape for that kind of marathon anymore unless we took a wheelchair and took turns pushing one another. Besides a wheelchair would provide a means to haul the booty.

I offered to give Terri a turn in the scooter, but she declined.

If this muscle weakness continues much longer, I'm getting myself a scooter so I can go where I want... I'm getting better slowly, but I'm limited in what I can do, where I can shop, etc., and that's getting old. I know it would feel a little like giving up, but it would also be tremendously liberating. And for sure I wouldn't be giving up on regaining my mobility, because I want to be out in the garden, actually gardening!

I did sit down once on the scooter when Jill was photographing orchids in an orchid arbor tunnel display. It was way too crowded and closed in for me - it was one of the exhibits that we didn't see until Wednesday when the crowds were back in full force. I went to a vendor to get a soda before I sat down - $5.50 for a 16 oz bottle!!! As I was sitting on the scooter, I actually nodded off

Jill photographing from said scooter


Most of my photographs were washed out but this is one that turned out ok and was one of my favorite displays. I love ideas that incorporate some kind of art in the garden. Jill and I are pretty sure that this tulip panel was made out of corrugated cardboard for show purposes, but could be made out of metal sheeting for outdoor longevity. One more to add to my ideas portfolio