The inaugural Maine Flower Show will be held at Thompson’s Point in Portland next March, organizers announced Tuesday.
Members of the Maine Landscape & Nursery Association announced in January that they were creating their own annual event, dubbed the Maine Flower Show. Association members had participated in the Portland Flower Show, but wanted to start their own show to “better dictate how we represent our industry to the public,” executive director Don Sproul said at the time. Members also worried that the Portland Flower Show, which was canceled this year, was not attracting as many visitors as it once had and was not tightly focused enough on garden and yard work.
The Maine Flower Show will be held next year from March 29 to April 2 at Thompson’s Point, near outer Congress Street on the Fore River. The show will feature 20 display gardens and 120 exhibitors, Sproul said. It will be held in a 25,000-square-foot historic brick building and a 13,000-square-foot heated tent.
Thompson’s Point is a former industrial area being redeveloped for retail, residential and entertainment uses. The site hosts concerts, among other events.
Sproul said organizers of the Maine Flower Show aim to keep parking fees low, hopefully as low as $5, with some parking on Thompson’s Point and a shuttle bus service to off-site lots, Sproul said.
Sproul said people can look for updates on the show’s website, Maineflowershow.com.
The Portland Flower Show, usually an annual event, was not held this spring. Organizers said they were taking a year off to reorganize that event. That show is still tentatively planned for 2017, according to the Portland Flower Show Facebook page.
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