Green thumbs throw a garden party at Connecticut flower show
BUMPER CROP: Rob Townsend鈥檚 landscape exhibit, which won best of show at the Connecticut Flower and Garden Show in Hartford, Connecticut, features his father鈥檚 vintage Jaguar.
Riley Robinson/Staff
Hartford, Conn.
Spring gardening is about heartache 鈥� and hope. The burying of summer bulbs and seeds into still-cold dirt. The struggle to coax something into bloom. And later, the persistent motions of weeding and pruning, weeding and pruning.
Candice Greenberg, a certified master gardener, turns out for the Connecticut Flower and Garden Show on this frigid February day to run an informational table for the Connecticut Orchid Society. Even after 11 years of growing orchids, she still feels like a 鈥渘ewbie.鈥�
鈥淭he first orchid I ever had was a gift, and I promptly murdered it. And then that became a challenge, like, 鈥榃hat did I do wrong, and how do I do better next time?鈥欌�� she says. 鈥淧art of the journey, unfortunately, is you kill plants to learn.鈥�
Why We Wrote This
Months ahead of time, competitors and exhibitors prepare their plants for the Connecticut Flower and Garden Show. It is a lesson in the challenges and payoffs of gardening.
The four-day event bills itself as the year鈥檚 only major flower trade show in New England. In the cavernous convention hall, attendees cast ballots for local garden clubs鈥� intricate floral arrangements, and ooh and aah at large-scale landscape installations put on by garden companies that have trucked in dirt for the occasion. Upstairs, flower fans of all ages pack into ballrooms for lectures on composting, beekeeping, and backyard conservation.
Rob Townsend, who owns an aquascaping company, won his eighth best-of-show trophy among the landscape exhibitions. His mock country garden includes fluttery azaleas, graceful Japanese maple trees, a fountain, and his father鈥檚 1986 Jaguar.
The hardest part of preparing for competition, Mr. Townsend says, is 鈥渇orcing鈥� the blooms so that all the plants in the display are at their peak during the show, which is off season from their natural cycles. The work begins months before in greenhouses, where Mr. Townsend rigs the temperature to trick the plants into bloom.
He is wistful as he describes tall cherry trees that ultimately didn鈥檛 bloom in time. 鈥淚t鈥檚 heartbreaking when you don鈥檛 get it right,鈥� he says.
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