The Garden Worm blog Digging up the best dirt on gardening!

This year’s theme, “Eye of the Garden,” was certainly delightful as my sister, sister-in-law, and I escaped the rain to take in the smells and scents of GardenScape 2010 a few days ago. GardenScape is an annual indoor event put on by the GardenScape Professionals Association of the Rochester Region. The show has a different theme each year that allows landscape, nursery and garden supply firms a chance to show off their creativity and talent. As for us, we were looking for color, for inspiration, a break from the gray days!

This particular garden had color and a touch of whimsy with a rotating frog with outstretched legs spitting water at the red impatiens! Little birdies perch on a nearby stone.

We were absolutely fascinated with the International Bonsai Arboretum and the Bonsai Society of Upstate New York exhibits. My cousin, Mark Arpag, gave us a tour and background on the various bonsai displayed at the show. He had two in the show with probably, he says, 80 or more in his garage! One of his bonsai was selected for the poster and brochure advertising the upcoming show that the BSUNY is having on May 15-16. He also pointed out William Valavanis whose 2nd US National Bonsai Exhibition will be in Rochester June 12-13th. Mr. Valavanis is an internationally known classical artist of bonsai. Unfortunately, the two pictures below of some of his GardenScape bonsai don’t do justice in any way to these incredible specimens!

Bonsai by W. Valavanis

Wisteria bonsai by W. Valavanis

This exhibit of an awesome outdoor fireplace by Twin Oaks Landscape made you want to stay and relax, just like this woman and her husband making a beeline for the chairs.

I found these little stone lights fascinating as an alternative to the usual lights on stakes along a pathway. The rocks are split, the top raised a little, and a light inserted on the inside. They would wash the walkway with enough ambient light to navigate, but not be obtrusive.

Our favorite garden exhibit was by Oriental Garden Supply though. They have all kinds of “rare and unusual” plants, shrubs, trees, and other hardscape features at their nursery and they used (it seemed like) a ton of them in their display. The well-deserved Plantsman’s Cup went to them along with many other medals and awards. How about these two views of the sedum and slate table!

Don’t you just love the leaves on the variegated sweet gum?

And this copper miniature landscape dish started putting ideas into our heads.

The Oriental Garden Supply display had all sorts of little vignettes throughout, and the plants and lanterns and fountains were cleverly placed to be seen from any angle. I helped at the display on Sunday and it occurred to me that most people that day were aware of the general overall beauty, but perhaps not the specifics. For example, in this vignette below, look at the juxtaposition of dark versus light, soft texture vs rough, smooth vs crinkles, blue vs red, green vs blue, hard vs soft, variegation vs one solid color. Of course, one couldn’t plant this close together in a real garden, but perhaps you get the idea – that this play of opposites in the garden creates a bit of tension (i.e., interest). Notice too that the band of nine dwarf mugo pines in the center calm the scene and gives your eye a rest from the cacophony around it. So much to look at and consider!

Although there were numerous other wonderful sights, I leave you with one last image at GardenScape 2010 – of a yukimi or “snow-viewing” lantern. Let’s hope that Spring is on its way!