It’s not spring, but it’s as close as southern Maine is going to get for a while — and it is the promise of spring to come.
The Portland Flower Show opens with its preview party and awards show Wednesday night and continues Thursday through Sunday, providing “The Enchanted Earth” in what otherwise has been several months of white winter landscape.
Additional Photos
The highlights of the show at the Portland Company Complex are the 17 gardens that will be created in five days. Usually the gardens are located where Portland Yacht Services stores its clients’ boats for the winter.
Jan Love, executive director of the show, said she just came up with the theme “The Enchanted Earth.”
“It just seemed like a fun theme,” Love said. “I’m looking for a little bit of pixie dust.”
The garden designers have had fun with the theme, as shown by the garden names on the show’s website: “Mystic Island,” “Once Upon a Time,” “In the Shadows,” “Within the Waterfall” and “Gulliver’s Garden.”
And while everyone is drawn to the gardens — the sight of blooms after a long winter, the smell of flowers and mulch, the sound of water running over pebbles and the wonderful designs in stone — visitors can do a lot more than gaze at the gardens and dream.
The lecture series has been expanded in part because the show is staying open until 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday — allowing for an extra lecture at 6 p.m. each day.
The gardening world has seen a renewed emphasis on edibles, and that theme is reflected in the lectures.
Kristen DeSouza of Garden in the Woods in Massachusetts will discuss “Designing and Installing an Edible Native Plant Garden” at noon Thursday. Dick Brzozowsky, an extension educator in Cumberland County, will speak on raising chickens at 4:30 p.m. Friday. Lisa Fernandes, founder of Portland Maine Permaculture, will speak on “Beware of Falling Food: Intro to Permaculture Design” at 3 p.m. Saturday. John Bunker of FEDCO in Waterville will discuss fruit trees for Maine homeowners at 1:30 p.m. Sunday.
A complete list of lectures is in the special flower show insert elsewhere in today’s paper and at the website portlandcompany.com/flower.
Love said chickens are a recurring theme in this year’s show, with Andy’s Agway of Dayton planning to have live chickens in its booth.
The Maine Landscape and Nursery Association is returning to take a major role in this year’s show, sponsoring the People’s Choice Award and having its own display garden — although that garden will not be judged.
“We are going to be giving a $250 stipend to the People’s Choice winner,” said Donald Sproul, executive director of the association. “And all of the voting for People’s Choice will take place right in the MeLNA booth.”
Tom Estabrook of Estabrook’s Farm and Garden Centers in Yarmouth, Scarborough and Kennebunk is coordinating the creation of the MeLNA garden as well as the one his company is creating with Ron Forest Fence and Mercier Landscaping.
“I’m also forcing plants for another garden,” Estabrook said. “I’m having all kinds of fun, but the stress level is getting a little high.”
Estabrook said it’s important for MeLNA as a trade group and for his company to have a presence at the flower show — not just because it results in a few direct sales, but it also informs people about what the industry is doing.
The selection of plants he brings into bloom for the show depends on a couple of things. Some he will use simply because he had them left over at the end of last season. But others he will use because he wants to promote them — even though he only occasionally makes direct sales because people have seen a plant at the flower show.
Among those Estabrook is working with are Kerria Japonica, which he says forces quite easily; a Rhode Island Red dwarf Japanese maple; “Bloomerang” Lilac, which reblooms during the growing season; and Heucherella “Dayglow Pink,” a Pink Ribbon plant that benefits breast cancer research.
“The Dayglow Pink is going to be really outstanding,” he said.
The flower show also gives gardeners a chance to do some direct shopping. Booths will be offering seeds, garden tools, lilies, books, orchids, furniture and a whole range of items not related to gardening.
On the final day of the show, March 13, Cumberland County Master Gardeners will hold two auctions. The silent auction will be 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. in Building 3, and the live auction will be at 5:30 p.m. in Building 13.
After getting excited by the gardens and the promise of spring, you can find something to take home for your own garden.
McLAUGHLIN’S NEW DIRECTOR
Ruth Copeman, a nonprofit leader from the Southwest, has been hired as of executive director of the McLaughlin Garden in South Paris.
“Ruth is a leader with a strong commitment to ensuring her organization contributes to the overall health of its community,” said board Chairman Bruce Rood.
Copeman has a master of science degree in botany. She worked for 10 years with the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, working her way up to director of education, and has spent the past five years as executive director of the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy in Scottsdale, Ariz.
She is also planning to spend some time at the McLauglin Garden booth at the Portland Flower Show.
Staff Writer Tom Atwell can be contacted at 791-6362 or at:
tatwell@pressherald.com
Send questions/comments to the editors.
