The final product

Honorable Mention in the Non-Profit category!!

Well, I survived the 2009 flower show this year! LOL...I did take today off and spent it straightening up the house and with the boys. It amazes me how much that week kicks my butt! However, I do think it gets easier with each year. This show went by fast...I'm not sure if it was because I know what to expect now or the hordes of visitors. I noticed a huge difference in the number of people who attended the show this year...lots more and more from further away. Thankfully this year, we had no snow which caused a day last year to be a complete wash out. I am so excited to have met so many people who are excited about the upcoming spring as I am!!!

I am taking a hiatus from designing the exhibit for the 2010 flower show because of my being busy with the Presidency of RINLA. It's okay though...it's time for someone else to get their moment in the spotlight!

RI Flower Show 2009; Part II

Here are the rest of the photos from today's progress -









As we do more detail work tomorrow and make the finishing touches, I'll keep taking photos and post them again. I'm still in the same booth - 313 - as in year's past. Come by and say HI!!!!

I have to laugh, I use my Witch Hazel as my signal for the Flower Show...it has bloomed Flower Show week each year since I planted it. The Show is a week early this year and I figured the Witch Hazel would miss it and bloom next week. Nope, she's blooming outside (not as strong as normal) but she's got the timing right. How did she know!!!! :)

Rhode Island Flower Show 2009!

Yes! I am back at the show for my fourth time as the RINLA exhibit and as a marketplace participant. The theme of the show this year is "Gardens of the World" and our garden is based on Tuscany/Italy. I'm channelling my inner Italian (I'm a quarter Italian!) and came up with this year's design. We're on the second day of the construction at the show site but the building itself has been in the works since December. I've been taking a bunch of photos along the way as we have been building.

The hardscape and the building were the bulk of the work on Sunday (I wasn't there for that) and yesterday. We had gotten a couple of the plants spaced out and planted...but we had to wait for the walkway completion before we got too far.






Today, all of the plant material came from Lake St. Garden Center up in NH. They force a good part of the flowers we use in the exhibit. We tweaked the walkway and the patio a bit today and incorporated another type of block and made a border and some neat features in the patio. So, once the landscapers got that all done, I was able to start placing and planting the remaining plant material. There were some challenges with this exhibit because the layout had changed and I didn't have enough space in some places and too much in others. Some of the plants didn't come and some I had both more and less numbers of what I needed. I followed my plan more or less as a guide and did a lot of designing on the fly. I am pleased with the outcome despite some uncertainty with layout and plants.

I'm going to make another post with more photos...this post is going to be ridiculously long if I don't.