Iris reticulata. (C) Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp
UPDATED March 20, 2011 to announce award given to Garfield Park garden at the Indiana Flower & Patio Show.
Finally, after months of near nakedness in the landscape, Mother Nature has some real flowers to show on this, the Ides of March.
Crocus, Iris reticulata, snowdrops (Galanthus) and blue striped squill (Puschkinia) are blooming. I am so thankful for these minor bulbs, which the Dutch call specialty bulbs. They are early, small, cheerful and they readily spread or naturalize throughout the garden.
Purple leaves of Virginia bluebells emerge from the soil. (C) Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp
In the landscape, ground-breaking leaves promise Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginiana), tulips (Tulipa), hyacinth (Hyacinthus) and daffodils (Narcissus).
Hellebore. (C) Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp
The hellebore (Helleborus) that’s blooming spent the winter in a gallon container piled with shredded bark. I hope I can find the plant tag. Nonetheless, plants are incredibly resilient, aren’t they?
Indoors, all but one of the the amaryllises (Hippeastrum) have come and gone, but the Clivia miniata is budded up and will soon release its sherbet-orange bloom.
Clivia bud. (C) Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp
I never know for sure when this plant is going to bloom, but March seems to be its preferred time. This is a special plant. It was given to me by the late Cathy Peachey, who died in 1994 from breast cancer. She founded CATH, Inc., which had stores at the Indianapolis City Market and at 54th Street and College Avenue. I think of her every time I see the plant. It has grown over the years and been divided three times for friends.
Also indoors is the 53rd Indiana Flower & Patio Show at the State Fairgrounds, which continues through March 20. Fellow blogger Carol Michel of MayDreamsGardens.com and I visited the show on Saturday. Although many of the gardens were lovely in depicting some Indianapolis neighborhoods or suburban communities, the hardscapes always seem to be the main feature. These shows are not about plant-lovers the way the trade shows are.
Iron gates and fountain recall historic Garfield Park. (C) Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp
And this show is not big on education, either. There are no classrooms or other areas for classes or speakers. Programs are presented on a large stage at one end of the hall amid huge floodlights that wash out any photographic presentation, announcements over loud speakers and crowds that wander in front of the speakers moving from one part of the building to another.
Every time I raise the issue with the organizers, I’m told that this show is for-profit, while the Philadelphia Flower Show and others throughout the country are not-for-profit. These shows do not have to make a profit, which is why they can have dozens of regional and national speakers do their programs. It doesn’t make sense to me and is a big disappointment. I wish we could develop a new model here in Indianapolis.
Still, the work involved and time commitment in setting up the dozen or so gardens in the show is astounding. The landscapers have to work at least a year in advance to design the garden, and then arrange to have the plants grown and forced into bloom for the nine-day show.
And, the show comes in early March when most of Hoosiers are ready for a breath of spring.
UPDATE Mayor Greg Ballard awarded MG Landscape & Irrigation the annual Mayor’s Award for its creation of the Garfield Park neighborhood at the Indiana Flower & Patio Show, which ends March 20, 2011.
I don’t know how I got by in the spring before I discovered Iris reticulata! I love those little flowers.
And you are right about the FLower & Patio show. The hardscape rules. But I still like to go every year just to see. One of these days, or years, I’m going to make a pilgrimage to the non-for-profit spring garden shows to see what they are like.