Green thumbs throw a garden party at Connecticut flower show
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Riley Robinson Staff photographer
| Hartford, Conn.
Spring gardening is about heartache – 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 “newbie.”
“The first orchid I ever had was a gift, and I promptly murdered it. And then that became a challenge, like, ‘What did I do wrong, and how do I do better next time?’” she says. “Part of the journey, unfortunately, is you kill plants to learn.”
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’s only major flower trade show in New England. In the cavernous convention hall, attendees cast ballots for local garden clubs’ 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’s 1986 Jaguar.
The hardest part of preparing for competition, Mr. Townsend says, is “forcing” 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’t bloom in time. “It’s heartbreaking when you don’t get it right,” he says.
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